Timeless
by arilovexo
Summary: They were fifteen when they met, but Ross and Laura always knew they had a friendship that would last forever. Especially as they started to get closer and closer and their hormones started to rage like crazy. Maybe just being friends wasn't the way to go after all. Ross/Laura
1. Chapter 1

_So this, is a cute, fluffy and adorable story about Ross and Laura. They are fifteen in this first chapter and then sixteen in the next, seventeen, eighteen and so on. I'll probably go up to maybe twenty or something. It's going to be short like the other one and updated with Let's Go Nowhere That We Know, at times._

_I also called it Timeless, because it's my favorite Austin & Ally song and truthfully, even if Ross is a little shit sometimes, he and Laura's friendship will always be timeless. And yeah, there's my cheesy moment of the day. _

_So anyway, I hope you enjoy this. I really like it. Hehe._

* * *

He was cute. Adorable even. Maybe even a little bit cuter and more adorable than she was.

She was happy he was her costar. If anything, she could see that he most definitely looked the part.

Austin Moon was Ross Lynch. Ross Lynch was Austin Moon.

It was meant to be.

Her eyes went to the left and she saw her mother sitting there, off to the side, while she and her other cast mates and directors, producers, writers and the two who made up the idea of the show in the first place had their first ever read through.

He was laughing his ass off.

She was too.

She looked up and there he was: right across from her, looking up at her too.

She smiled.

He smiled back.

Then it was her line.

* * *

He couldn't deny it.

Laura Marano was cute. Adorable, goofy, sweet and most importantly, she found things to be very easily entertaining.

To put it simply, she was his kinda girl.

Though, they had just met the week before for screen tests. They had tested together and he swore that their chemistry had sparked instantly. It was as though they'd known each other all their lives.

Well, maybe not that extreme.

But hey, they gotten the parts, so he figured that had to mean something.

She was saying her lines, her hands going to her ear, and she put the loose strand behind it. He was so engrossed in what she was doing, he almost missed his line.

Something about corndogs, he said it, didn't really pay attention to it.

His eyes went to his right where he saw his mother speaking to hers. His older brother, Rocky looking pretty amused beside her. He rolled his eyes and tried not to let the fact that he was knowingly smirking get to him.

He found it pretty lame that both of their parents (and Rocky, though that was by choice) had to be there. It was as though they had to watch every little thing they did. He felt like he was a kid who was being monitored over how much ice cream and cake he ate at a birthday party.

Sometimes, being fifteen sucked.

So did being born so late in the damn year. It felt like he wouldn't be sixteen for forever.

He watched her again, her hand tangled in her hair as she bit her lip and followed along with the script.

She looked up and smiled at him.

So, he did the gentlemanly thing and smiled back at her.

* * *

"Crazy read through right?"

She blinked, realizing that Ross was in her dressing room. His cheeks turned pink.

"Sorry, I um, should've knocked first. But… you know, I'm not that kinda guy." He walked into the room and sat down on her couch. She just looked at him, surprised he even had the guts to do it.

"Yes, and… you're strange." She said, scrunching her eyebrows together.

"So I've been told." He replied and casually leaned back, his hands behind his head as he looked up at her. She noticed his hat and moved her neck so that she could see it better.

"You wear a hat that says surf naked?" Her eyebrows went up, "those security guards let you in here with that?"

"It's not like we work for Disney or something," He scoffed and then he realized she had a point. "Wait.. I don't think they cared."

"You're going to be one of those guys who work for Disney but curse anytime they want to regardless, aren't you?" She asked and he smiled at her.

"Looks like you know me already."

"I don't, but whatever makes you happy I guess." She returned back to her homework, the math problem truly stumping her. She was deep in concentration for a few minutes when she felt something behind her and saw a shadow in her light.

She turned to look at him.

"Y equals four and x equals nine," He said and then moved away like nothing had happened. "It's really easy to solve."

"What are you, a math genius?"

"No, I just know how to do the problem," He answered back and she nodded, writing in the answers, before putting her pen down and turned back to him. He just looked at her, "what?"

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen, you?"

"Fifteen."

"That explains why your mother is here," He said, "and if you were curious at all, mine's here too. The blonde lady with the brown haired fuckhead."

She laughed at the nickname, "what you don't like him?"

"No, I love him." He answered, "he's just a fuckhead."

"I was right about you," She commented and then turned back around to do her homework.

"Wait, right about what?"

She didn't answer.

"Laura…"

Still didn't answer.

"You're going to torture me aren't you? I see a lot of this happening in the future."

She tried not to laugh, but failed and turned back around again.

"I meant," She began, "that you're going to be one of those guys who works for Disney and still curses anytime you want to regardless," She repeated her words from earlier.

"Right, because I said fuckhead.." Ross nodded and She just blinked back at him. "Rocky really is a fuckhead though."

"That's not nice to be saying that about your… what is he? Cousin? Brother?"

"Pet," Ross answered. She raised an eyebrow. "Okay, not really. He's my brother."

She looked at him confused, "how? You're blonde, your mother's blonde… he's got brown hair."

He shrugged, "I have a theory he's adopted, but that can't be it since we do sort of look alike, minus the hair color differences. We were all blonde when we were kids." He explained.

"Wait, all?"

"I have three more siblings, Riker, Rydel and then my younger brother, Ryland. And an honorary brother, Ratliff." He added, "he's in a band with us."

"You're in a band? Wow, you just keep getting cooler and cooler, don't you?"

He nodded, "yeah, R5. We're pretty freakin' awesome."

She nodded, "that's… cool. Very cool. I like bands, Beatles, the Who, Rolling Stones… I'm all about old school rock music."

His eyes it up, "no way! So am I! One of my dreams is to see the Beatles live, but for obvious reasons that can't happen, so I'm really just dying to see Ringo and Paul McCartney, I think that'd be pretty damn cool."

She smiled, "me too, they're still alive, so… we've got half a shot, right?"

He nodded, "right." Then it was silent for a few moments. She could see he had a short attention span, "so… do you have any siblings?"

She nodded as she wrote down how to solve the next math problem, "I just have an older sister, Vanessa. She's an actress as well."

Ross nodded, "so you're the baby of the family."

"Yup. And you're not right, because you have a younger brother."

Ross nodded, "I'm second to youngest though. I'm for sure the youngest in my band."

Laura turned to him confused, "but you just said you were in a band with your siblings. Ryland's the youngest."

He understood her confusion, "oh, no. He's not in the band, he's more like the manager."

"You have a manager who's younger than you?"

"Yeah, he's pretty good at it too."

"Wow, that's pretty cool. I have to admit."

Ross smiled, "yeah… I guess."

It was silent again.

He was unable to sit still.

She was just trying to concentrate on her homework and not think any unpure thoughts about her costar. She briefly wondered if it was too soon, since she was so young, but figured it was probably very normal.

"Take a break," He finally said and she looked up at him. "I wanna take you somewhere I found earlier, wandering around."

"I can't just—"

"Sure you can," He gave her a one shoulder shrug. "Just come on."

So she decided to take a break.

* * *

"Where are we?" Laura's brown eyes widened as she looked around, the view was amazing. She could hardly believed it existed. Ross pointed ahead of her, beginning to point out some things to her.

"There's Hollywood, see the sign? Then there's… I'm not really sure what it's called, but it's a city I think, and then over there, like way, way over there is downtown I believe and then somewhere in that general direction is the beach… I think."

Laura smiled at him, the light breeze blowing her hair onto her face. "You don't know your Los Angeles geography yet?"

He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets, "I've only lived here for barely two years, I don't know much about it yet."

"Two years is a long time."

"I never visited those places, except for auditions or something. If I did, I just don't remember the names, I'm bad at that."

She nodded and then motioned for him to give her his hand, he looked at her, confusedly, but did as she asked, she held it for a moment and then held it in front of her. She pointed with her finger and he got the hint, his finger pointing as well.

"Century City, Hollywood, yes the beach is that way, either Santa Monica, Venice or Malibu, but that's further down, there's also Beverly Hills and Westwood before and after Century City and then yeah, that's downtown," She said and then let his hand fall down by their sides, not letting go. He just looked at her and she looked back at him for a moment, before they both broke out of whatever it was they were in and stepped away from each other.

"You know your shit."

"I've lived here my whole life," She answered.

"So then fifty degrees is pretty much cold for you."

She nodded, "it's not for you?"

"I'm from Colorado, it's pretty damn cold there."

She smiled, "and yet, you look like a surfer. Ironic."

He smiled back, "yeah, pretty ironic, I'd say."

* * *

It was the first day of filming the episode and they were both in the hair and make-up room. She was looking at him through the mirror and then asked the question that had been on her mind for a good few days.

"When's your birthday?"

He looked up at her, "December 29th." He paused, "yours?"

"November 29th," She responded.

He grinned, "we're exactly a month apart."

She smiled, "yeah and you're the baby of the cast," She playfully stuck her tongue out and she did the same, both laughing so much it took longer for their hair and make-up to get done.

When they were finished, Laura got off her chair to go to set, when Ross stopped her, his hand on top of hers.

"Timeless," He said.

She raised an eyebrow, "sorry?"

"Promise me, no matter what happens with the show or with our lives, that our friendship will always be timeless." He didn't take his eyes off of her.

She felt her heart skip and then smiled, "yes, we are forever, timeless."

And then they squeezed each other's hand to seal the deal.

* * *

"Tell me you've heard of this band," Laura held up a CD, walking into the schoolroom where Ross sat, his feet on the desk as he let out a yawn and watched her sit down beside him.

"What band?" He asked a moment later.

She handed him the CD.

Walk the Moon, he read.

"Nope, can't say I have." He handed it back to her.

"They're great, amazing, awesome, any other synonym you can think of." She was bouncing in her seat and Ross could see she was genuinely excited for him to give the band a listen.

"Okay, I'll check them out," He said, then thought of something. "On one condition."

She narrowed her eyes, "if it has something to do with food, I'm not—"

"Make a twitter account," He grinned at her.

"I don't really like the internet, and besides I don't have the right phone for it," She pulled it out of her pocket and then put it on the table in front of them. His eyes widened as he lifted it up to look at it.

"I'm pretty sure cavemen used this when they wanted to communicate with dinosaurs," Ross handed it back to her.

"Cavemen and dinosaurs can't communicate."

"They do in cartoons." Ross shrugged.

"That's because it's a cartoon."

"Yeah, yeah… words, anyway, get a twitter account and I'll listen to the band." Ross went back to reading his history book.

"But—"

"No one's going to hurt you on the internet, promise." He said, "well, actually I can't promise that, but I'll be the first person you follow, so… I can kick some ass if I need to."

Laura laughed, "you would kinda fail I think."

"I know some karate."

"Right and I know how to play the guitar," Laura scoffed.

Ross smiled, "you can someday."

Laura sighed, "fine. I'll get a stupid twitter, but… remember our deal, you promised you'd give them a listen."

He nodded, "yeah, yeah. I'll give them a shot. Now let's talk about your old school phone…"

"I'm not upgrading. I love it too much to part with it."

Ross sighed, "worth a shot, though, I don't think I'll ever understand that."

* * *

Ross was at home when he listened to the CD Laura lent him. The first song was good, then the second was better and by the third he was pretty much into it. He quickly pulled the CD out of his laptop and went downstairs to the living room where his family was watching a game.

He turned the tv off, and then put the CD in the player, ignoring everyone's complaints. Then he pressed play and everyone shut up.

"Wow," Riker said, "they're amazing."

Rydel agreed, "so good."

Rocky nodded, "who are they?"

"Walk the Moon, Laura got me into them. They're pretty damn good." He let the CD continue to play, ignoring the knowing looks his mother and father exchanged in between them. He just smiled, staring off into the distance. "I can't wait to  
tell her."

Rocky smirked, "looks like someone's got a crush."

Ross' mouth dropped open. "I don't! She's my costar, that'd be kinda awkward. Plus, we're friends… I don't want to ruin that and therefore, don't have feelings for her."

"You're totally denying it." Rocky said.

Ross rolled his eyes, "whatever dude."

The smirk never left Rocky's face.

* * *

"Okay, you were right, they're really good." Ross lightly dropped the CD onto Laura's desk.

"Right? I'm dying to go to one of their concerts, they're just… so good! I can't help but want to see them live."

Ross smiled, sitting down beside her, "wait until you see my band live, you'll hopefully enjoy that too."

Laura just smiled, "there's a pretty high chance I will."

He locked eyes with her for a few seconds and then his eyes went to her laptop. She knew what he was hinting at and sighed, handing over her laptop.

"Alright, go ahead, make me a twitter." She said and he grinned. He typed in a few things, asked her a few questions and before she knew it, her account was made. She got her laptop back and saw that she was already following one person.

Ross, she assumed, and then got a notification. She looked at it and saw that Ross had followed her and then tweeted about her having an account and to follow her. She was so surprised when her amount of followers kept increasing.

Finally, good going Ross! She read in her mentions and saw that Raini had tweeted her among a few others.

She then heard giggling and looked up to see Raini was in the schoolroom, Calum behind her.

He high fived Ross and then Raini hugged Laura.

"Now, you're one of us!" She squealed.

Ross shook his head, "nah, she was always one of us." He winked at her and she blushed, looking away. "Timeless," He said.

"Timeless," She answered back.

Calum and Raini just looked at each other, completely confused and completely lost.

* * *

He met her dad two months after they filmed the first couple episodes. Her mother couldn't make it, so he had taken her to work.

He had just been walking down the hall, towards the school room like usual, when he saw her. He smiled and then walked through the door, he put his hands over her eyes and heard her giggle.

"Guess who." He said.

"Jesse McCartney?"

"Not even close."

"Zac Efron?"

"Very not close."

"Calum?"

"Closer."

"Austin."

"I guess close enough."

She giggled, "I know it's you Ross!"

He took his hands off her and leaned in so that his chin was on her shoulder, "watcha working on?"

"This dumb essay I have to write." She sighed, "I'm too tired to care about homework."

He looked at her, "you? Not caring about your homework? I am surprised, Miss Laura Marano!" He pretended to scold her and she rolled her eyes. The action made Ross laugh a bit and she giggled.

"Excuse me? What are you doing with my daughter?"

Ross stood up and saw an older man looking at him, a bit angry. He backed away and then sat down across the room from her.

"Dad, stop." Laura put her hand on his chest. "He's just a friend, a very good, close, best friend, okay?" Ross tried not to smile at the fact that she called him her best friend for fear of getting his ass kicked. "He's also the male lead of the show I'm on." She added. "If you kill him, for no logical reason whatsoever, then there won't be a show anymore."

"She's got a point," Ross spoke up and then winced a bit at his gaze, "…sir." He added and then quickly looked away.

"We need him, okay? He's Austin, I'm Ally. Without Austin, there is no Ally." Laura still held her hand on her father's chest.

"Just to point out," Ross hesitantly said, "there's like a zero chance I'm going to do anything to hurt your daughter, she's too awesome."

"Do you like her?" Her father asked.

Ross looked at her and she looked back at him, "what's the right answer without you killing me?" He decided to go with. "I do value my life you know. I'm only fifteen, I still have a good eight years to go." He then realized what he said, "not that I'm saying you're old," his eyes widened, "or that I don't value Laura's life either, because I do, I'm just—"

"You're rambling," Laura interrupted him with a sigh. "Look dad, we're supposed to be in school, can you just go to my dressing room and hang out for a while? I'll be done in a few hours."

Her father nodded, slowly looking at Ross, before, to both of their surprise, he loosened up and smiled at him.

"You're a good kid," He said, "treat her well, I'm trusting you," and with that, he left.

Ross just blinked his eyes, catching Laura's attention, "he scares me."

"Does he?" Laura faked her curiousity.

"I almost shit my pants."

She laughed, "yeah, he scares you."

"He's not in the mafia or anything is he?"

"Why do you ask?"

"He sounded Italian."

"He is."

"So he is in the mafia," Ross' eyes widened more.

Laura decided it'd be fun to mess with him. "Yup and you better watch your back."

Ross just swallowed hard and she tried not to laugh.

It was really, really hard.

But she did it.

Until he left the room to go to the bathroom (or so he claimed).

Then she just let go and burst into laughter, only stopping when he came back into the room and looked at her strangely.

* * *

"Look what I goooot!" Ross waved something in her face. Laura looked up and snatched it from his hands, her eyes widening, she jumped up, squealing and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tight.

"What did you get her?" Raini asked.

"Tickets." Ross shrugged like it wasn't a big deal at all.

"Tickets? Tickets for what?"

"Walk the Moon!" Laura jumped up and down, "we're going to a concert? Together?"

Ross nodded, "Well, my dad's going to be there too, but yeah. We're going."

Laura squealed again and hugged him tight, "I can't wait!"

He hugged her back, "me neither." He said quietly and then hugged her tighter.

* * *

He wasn't sure, but somehow her father let her leave with himself and his father to the concert. He was surprised. He had genuinely thought he would make an excuse for her not to go, but he didn't. That made him kinda happy. It meant he trusted him. Trusted him not enough to kill him and he was more than happy with that.

"Best concert ever!" Laura said as they walked from the venue to the car. "I don't think I've ever sang that much or jumped around in my life."

"Yeah, I have to admit, it was pretty entertaining… and cute." He smirked at her as the reached his father's car. She gave him a look as his father unlocked the car and Ross opened the door for her. He smiled at her as she sat in her seat.

"Wow, what a gentleman," She commented.

"Can't help it, I'm sort of a romantic." He answered and she smiled.

"That was one of the first things I picked up about you," She replied. "You're an adorably handsome romantic." She then winked at him and he looked at her surprised she said it. Then took his seat in the front seat while she and his father talked a bit.

They pulled up to her house and he opened her door for her, walking her to her front door.

"Thanks for concert, Ross. I had the best time ever." She smiled up at him and he smiled down at her.

Then he put his hands on her waist and leaned forward, hugging her tight.

"See you in school tomorrow."

She smiled, "See you."

With that, she went inside and he got back into the car.

"You are one interesting kid," He father commented and he looked at him, surprised. But he didn't elaborate more and Ross was too tired to ask what he meant by it.

Though, his words never stopped bouncing around in his mind.

* * *

"Sleepover?" Laura looked at Ross unsure if she should actually go through with it. "Won't that be awkward?"

"How is it going to be awkward? You'll be with me, my brothers and my sister. In the living room, in full view." Ross said. He nudged her and smiled, "come on, it'll be fun!"

She couldn't believe she was agreeing to do it, but she nodded her head. "Fine."

"Yes!" He pumped his fist and then hugged her tight, causing her to laugh. He ran off and she just shook her head, going over her lines for rehearsal later that afternoon.

* * *

She showed up at his house at seven. Immediately after she rang the doorbell, he pulled her inside the house and then led her to the living room area where she found five other people on the couch, watching something on the tv.

"Laura, this is Riker, Rydel, Ryland, Ratliff and you already know Rocky." He said pointing the mall out as he introduced them. She waved at them, smiling and then turned to Ross.

"So, where can I put my stuff?"

"Here, I'll take you upstairs to my room," He answered and led her upstairs. They entered his room and Laura looked around seeing not only Ross' name on the wall, but Ryland's as well. "I share a room with Ryland," He explained and she nodded.

"Um, this is going to sound very silly, but I kind of forgot to bring something to sleep in." Laura sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck and he just smiled at her.

"No problem, I'll give you something to wear," He said and with that pulled out a pair of yellow sweatpants and a matching hoodie. He handed it to her and then he told her he'd step out of the room while she changed. He had to use the bathroom anyway, so he figured it would take that amount of time for her to change anyway.

He opened the door to his room a few moments later and then heard a loud squeal. His eyes widened as he realized that he'd just walked in on a half naked Laura and quickly closed the door, covering his eyes. She opened it a few moments later and without a word, they awkwardly walked down the stairs to the living room.

"Sup guys?" Rocky asked and Laura shrugged, going to sit down beside him. Before he could say a word, she snatched the remote controller from the video game they had apparently put on in the last five minutes she and Ross and been gone and then started to play it. "Huh, feisty." Rocky commented, he looked at Ross. "I like her." Ross just rolled his eyes and shook his head in response.

* * *

He woke up to the sound of giggling.

Opening his eyes, he saw that Laura was above him, giggling at him and he just looked at confused. She discreetly pointed down and he looked only to notice that he was… for lack of a better term, a bit happy.

His cheeks reddened and he immediately rolled over, not that that helped his situation, and hid his face in his pillow. He was so embarrassed.

"Hey." Laura whispered quietly and he opened his eyes to look at her. "Don't be embarrassed, it's natural and normal."

She was sitting right next to him, her knees on his sleeping bag. Her, being the only girl in the house at that moment who wasn't related to him, being so close, certainly wasn't helping his problem at all either. But then, he realized that he had nothing to be embarrassed about, so he just laid on his back again and looked up at her, a smile on his face.

She seemed surprised by his sudden change in attitude. He sat up, smirking and leaning back on his hands. Then, he leaned in close enough that he could whisper in her ear.

"I know you don't want to be the one to take care of this… so if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a shower, before Rocky steals it the chance from me, and take care of it on my own," He pulled away from her and her eyes were slightly widened. He could see she had a million thoughts running through her mind at that moment, but what he didn't know was the shiver that had gone down her spine. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and then nodded.

"You go do that," She finally said, opening her eyes. They both stared at each other, sharing a moment and knew from that moment on, things would be very different between them.

* * *

Ross got out of the shower, running a towel through his wet hair and stepping into his room when he noticed Laura was sitting on his bed. She was wearing very short shorts, a tight tank top, and her hair was in a high ponytail.

He couldn't deny that she looked attractive.

She was otherwise occupied, playing games on his laptop that he'd given her the password for the night before, stating that he trusted her enough. She was very concentrated, her tongue sticking out her eyes fixed on the screen.

He decided to scare the shit out of her.

He put both hands on either side of her and leaned forward, a smile on his face as he got closer to her. That seemed to surprise her enough that she looked up, startled to see he was right in front of her, their faces almost an inch apart.

"I'm out of the shower." The water from the shower dripped from his hair and onto her skin. She tried not to show that it had affected her in any way.

"I can see that." She answered back, she pushed the computer away and then to his surprise, wrapped her arms around his neck. She pulled him on top of her, so that she was lying flat on her back and giggled when he just fell on top of her. His bare chest so close to her caused a warmth to spread throughout her body.

She realized then that all he was wearing was a towel around his waist and she felt that tingle again. Ross, however, was just happy that she couldn't feel anything that was going on in the lower part of his body, already knowing he'd have to excuse himself to go to the bathroom in a few minutes.

They just stared at each other, neither one making the first move. Her eyes went up to his and she bit down on her bottom lip, which just made her so damn cute Ross wanted nothing more than to just kiss her until they both couldn't take it anymore.

Wait, what?

They were just friends, weren't they?

He realized that before he made a huge mistake, he'd have to get himself off of her and get dressed (also, possibly do that bathroom thing again too).

"Don't move," She whispered, "you're keeping me warm." She closed her eyes and Ross swallowed hard.

What the hell was she trying to do to him?

He closed his eyes too and they just laid there on the bed like that, both not making an effort to move or really make a move either.

Until,

"Hey! Ross! Out of the shower yet? Mom's got breakfast ready. You seen Laura by the way?" Rocky stuck his head into the room and immediately their eyes opened and Ross quickly jumped away from her. "Was I uh… interrupting something?" He asked, an amused look on his face.

"What? No! We weren't, there's nothing, we were just… messing around." Laura looked at Ross for confirmation and he nodded his head quickly.

"Yup and now I have to uh, get dressed, yeah." he gave Rocky the thumbs up and then walked out of the room.

"Hey Ross?" Rocky called after him.

"What?" Ross called back.

"I think you forgot something!"

It took a moment, but Ross came back, his cheeks red and flustered as he just grabbed clothes from his dresser and then quickly walked out of the room.

It was silent for about five seconds, before Laura spoke, "so what are we having for breakfast?"

* * *

Breakfast was in a word: awkwardly imperfect.

Okay, that was two words, but that's all Laura could think of to call it.

She and Ross weren't looking at each other and Rocky was just amused by all of it. Everyone else was confused, and both Ross and Laura hoped they stayed that way. Confused and unaware of what went on just a few moments ago.

Not that they wanted anything to happen because then that would change their friendship and they were pretty sure they weren't ready for that yet.

"So, Laura, why don't you, tell us a bit about yourself?" Stormie asked her and Laura nodded.

"Um, okay. Well, I'm from here, Los Angeles, I mean, not here in this specific house. I have an older sister, she's an actress, I've been acting since I was five and something a lot of people remember me from is when I was in Superbad." She then looked down at her food, but remembered something, her eyes lighting up. "Oh! And my sister is teaching my sign language. We practice together, since she has to know it for the show she's on."

"No way, what show?" Rydel asked her.

"Switched at Birth."

"That's your sister?" Rydel asked, "I love that show! She's amazing in it!"

Laura laughed, "thank you, I'll be sure to let her know you said that."

Ross had poked her and she turned her head to him, "when were you in Superbad? We've seen that movie like fifty million times and I don't remember seeing you in it."

Her face turned pink, "I uh, it's kind of, an awkward scene, if you want to think of it like that, yeah."

"Okay, how awkward could it be?" Ross asked her. "It's not like you had sex or something in it, right? You were a kid." Laura's cheeks got redder, if possible. "Wait, no way."

"I didn't have sex, why are we even talking about sex while eating with your family, is my question." Laura mumbled.

"Seriously, Ross? She's like the younger version Jonah Hill's character has a crush on. During that whole penis drawing scene. She even picks up a picture and looks at it horrified and runs, screaming out of the room. If I remember correctly." Riker said and then Ross' eyes lit up and he smirked.

"No way."

Laura nodded.

"So you're telling me that you, Laura Marano, who plays sweet innocent Ally Dawson, had a scene with penises?"

"Don't rub it in," She groaned.

"Oh no, I'm never letting this one go." He had a twinkle in his eye and she sighed, defeated.

"Somehow, I doubt you ever will."

* * *

After that semi-awkward sleepover, Laura felt like she was slowly becoming a part of the Lynch family. Rocky had said it was some sort of a tradition that they do a 'Lynch Family Initiation' thing and she had passed it. Whatever that meant.

But now, she realized, she and Ross were closer than ever.

Close to the point that they acted like an actual couple.

Sometimes, not all the time.

He'd lay on top of her a lot and she'd do the same. Or, they'd absentmindedly hold hands, without realizing it and they would stand super close to each other. Raini had commented that they didn't even know what the definition of personal space was, since they were always standing so damn close to each other.

But, truth be told, they didn't even care. They were happy with their friendship and that's what mattered to them.

"Ross?"

He looked up at Laura.

"Sup?" Yeah, he wasn't always as cool as he tried to be, but she wasn't going to break that news to him. He pretty much already knew it was true.

"Sleepover? Tonight?" She asked, her eyes twinkling. "Raini's house, be there or forever, be known as a weenie."

"What?" He laughed at her, amused. "Did you just call me a weenie?"

"Yes, yes I did."

Then, before she could run off, he wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up spinning her around while she just giggled and laughed. He then gently put her down and held her tightly against him, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"I'm so not a weenie."

"Whatever you say," She laughed.

* * *

Raini and Calum were fast asleep and Laura was trying to fall asleep, but she was too cold. She was known to get super cold easily and the fact that she'd forgotten to pack more blankets or ask Raini for more, made her a little annoyed with herself.

She didn't know what she was going to do, since she wasn't going to be getting much sleep.

So, she decided to see if Ross was awake.

"Ross!" She whispered but he didn't make any movement to indicate he'd heard her. "Ross!" She whispered louder, still nothing. Then she threw her pillow at him and he sat up, shocked.

"Wha, what happened?" He asked sleepily.

"Are you awake?"

"I am now." He glared at her and she sighed.

"Sorry, I'm just really cold and I didn't know what to do. I can't sleep."

"So… you decided to wake me up?" He gave her a look and she giggle, shaking her head. He rolled his eyes and laid back down. THen he held one arm up, she tilted her head in question. "Come over here and lay with me." He said, "I'll keep you warm."

Her heart skipped and she wondered if he even realized what he was saying.

"Or you could just stay there and freeze all night, it's your choice really." He yawned and she bit her lip and making a quick decision got up to go lay down beside him. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close enough that her head was on his chest. Then he put the blanket over them both and she got more comfortable, feeling drowsy all of a sudden, she just let out a breath of air and then relaxed against him.

It didn't take long at all for her to fall fast asleep once she was with by his side.

* * *

"Aw, so cute." She heard and woke up, opening her eyes to see Raini and Calum looking down at her. She felt someone move and looked down to see Ross' arms were wrapped tightly around her and that he was still asleep. She wiggled a bit and felt something twitch against her and froze, looking up at her friends.

"Something up, Laura?" Calum asked her and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Shut up, Calum." She muttered and then both he and Raini burst into laughter.

"We'll be in the kitchen making breakfast, take your time getting up though." Raini told her, "warn Ross before he completely gets up what's going on first."

Laura just rolled her eyes and then closed them, laying back down and getting comfortable again. To her surprise, Ross held her tighter and closer to him, almost like he was clutching onto a teddy bear or something crazy like that.

She felt him against her and she felt that tingle-shiver go down her spine again.

Only this time, it wasn't that awkward anymore.

She turned around so that she was facing him, her head right next to his and then put her fingers through his hair, rubbing his ear. He smiled at that and she smiled back, even though he technically couldn't see her.

"Wake up sleepyhead," She whispered and then to her surprise, he pulled her against him and then flipped them so that he was on his back and she was on top of him. He opened his eyes and she let out a soft, "oh!" The blanket covered their bodies, so if Raini, Calum or any of Raini's family members were to see them, they would probably think something was going on that really wasn't.

"How do you know I haven't been awake this whole time?" He asked with a soft yawn.

"Because you seemed like her were fast asleep," She answered, adjusting herself a bit. He bit his lip to keep from groaning and luckily for him, she completely missed it. "You have a um, friend though." Despite knowing what she was talking about, he still wrapped his arms around her and then tightly hugged her. She could feel it even more now and swallowed hard.

"Are the kind of friends that don't care about stuff like that?" He asked her, his voice was still sleepy and she couldnt help but think about how damn cute it sounded.

"I don't know." She answered honestly, and tilted her head, cutely at him. "What kind of friends are we?"

He smiled at her. "Best friends."

She laughed, nodding her head in agreement, "best friends," She repeated, "but… I don't think I can help you with your morning friend."

The fact that she was being so cool about it, surprised him. He was taking a risk by doing what he was doing, but now he knew. Laura wasn't like most girls, not that he had much to compare her with anyway, except for his sister, mother, cousins and other relatives, but still. She was different and he really liked that about her.

"You could someday," He mumbled so low, he was glad she didn't hear it.

"So, what are you going to do about it?" She asked him, wiggling her body a bit. She could feel him stiffen beneath her.

"That's not helping," He glare at her and she giggled.

Then, she leaned in and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for keeping me warm last night," She whispered in his ear and then pulled back. She sat up and then after about a second, stood up completely, the blanket falling down at both their feet. "Raini and Calum are waiting for us in the kitchen, go take care of that and I'll be there, waiting for you." She winked at him and he felt his heart skip.

Holy crap what was this girl doing to him?

* * *

"There he is!" Calum clapped his hands as Ross walked into the kitchen, a good five to ten minutes later. Though, five of those minutes were spent still lying in his sleeping bag, and then rest, well, he wasn't about to tell Calum anything.

"Shut up, bro." Ross playfully punched him and then Raini handed him a plate of pancakes. His eyes lit up, "ooh pancakes!"

"Wow, getting more and more like Austin everyday," Laura teased him as he sat down beside her. He just smiled over at her, thought to himself for a moment and then leaned in, giving her a kiss on the cheek. She blushed and put her hand where he had kissed her.

He looked up to see if Raini or Calum had noticed, and once seeing that they were preoccupied with their own thing looked at Laura. "I didn't give you one earlier, so… there it is."

They both realized then, that their friendship was going to evolve into something more at some point.

And it wasn't like either one of them were willing to stop it from happening.

For sure, they both knew they wanted it. When it would happen, who knew. But when it did, they knew they'd be happy with it.

They couldn't wait.

* * *

_Yeah? What'd ya think about that? Heh. Let me know, here, on twitter, wherever you want. Also, message me if you have any ideas for stories cuz I'd love to write some for once. _

_Next chapter will be up soon, hopefully. I just wanted a drama free story you know? Though it won't be completely drama free. But still. Happy and upbeat, I like the sound of that. _


	2. Chapter 2

_Okay, this is super long because I have a different program I'm using for writing and it doesnt tell me how many words I've written, so sorry. Haha, not that you guys care I don't think._

_So anyway, it's super cheesy, super fluffy, super cute and super... awesome. I guess, just kidding! But really, it gave me so many feels writing it. I'm not even joking, seriously. Like whoa, man._

_My um, ex-boyfriend (but he's still my best friend) helped me with ideas, we sort of based it on stuff we've done in our relationship, but I changed it to make it more friendlyish. That's not a word. Whatever, don't judge me. Haha. _

_I own nothing._

* * *

She watched Ross jump around her chair in the school room, laughing as he put his hands on the back of her chair and then spun her around so that she was facing him. He then leaned forward, both hands on either side of the chair and pressed his forehead against hers.

"Hi." He smiled.

"Hey you," She smiled back.

"It's your birthday tomorrow," Ross said in a singsongy voice. She nodded.

"That it is."

"And Austin and Ally premieres three days later."

She smiled, "that it does."

"So, how does it feel to be an old lady?" He asked, smirking at her. She playfully pushed him.

"I'm not old, well, I mean, technically I am, but I'm going to be sixteen. You mister, just have to catch up." She had a twinkle in her eye and he couldn't help but smile at her.

"Yeah, give me a month, I'll catch right up." He winked and she couldn't help but look down at her hands and blush. "So, excited Birthday Girl? Got anything fun planned?"

She shrugged, "I wasn't going to really celebrate it. My sister and mother are out of town because my sister has to do promotion for her show in New York." He looked at her closely and noticed she seemed… sad. She looked up then and just smiled at him. "But otherwise, it's just me and my father."

He didn't really think about what he said next.

"Come over to my house tomorrow."

She raised an eyebrow, "you want me to spend my birthday with you?"

He looked down, suddenly shy. "Well, I-I mean if you um, want to yeah." He shrugged, "why not?" Then looked at her, his eyes slightly widened, "but you don't have to. I just figured you'd want a real sixteenth birthday celebration, you know? With… your father, friends… you're adorably cute co-star with so much swagger." He popped his collar and she couldn't help but laugh. "But, it's up to you."

"You know what?" She asked and he shrugged, "yeah, that sounds perfect. I'll do that." He smiled.

"Really?"

"Really."

He really hoped she didn't see the blush that had come on his cheeks. She turned her chair away and with a giggle started to work on her homework.

He sat down in his own chair and then smiled to himself. He couldn't wait until the next day.

* * *

She realized something Ross failed to mention.

That he had planned this "surprise" party from the beginning. He just hadn't told her about it.

Sneaky little shit, she thought.

As soon as she and her father had pulled up to his house, Ross had (quite suspiciously, might she add) walked up to her and taken her hand in his. He pulled her with him up to the front door and then put his finger to his lips, which just confused her because really, wasn't his whole family supposed to know she and her father were coming over? But then, they stepped inside, she almost had a heart attack and all her friends yelled, 'surprise!' Some friends from her school had even shown up.

And, so had Vanessa and her mother.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, hugging her sister tight and squealing.

"You didn't think we would miss your sixteenth birthday, did you?" Vanessa asked and Laura shook her head, hugging her again.

"You're the best." She whispered and Vanessa smiled at her.

"I don't think I'm the one you should be saying that to right now," She said and Laura just looked up at her, confused. She left her by the snack table, confused.

"So…" Ross smoothly came up behind her, his hand on the table. She turned around and looked at him, "how do you like your surprise party?"

She smiled up at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, she stood all the way on her tippy-toes (because really, why did Ross need to be born with the amazing trait of being way taller than her?) and kissed his cheek. He blushed as she went back to standing on her feet.

"It's perfect." She smiled and then it clicked in her mind what Vanessa had meant. "You're the best, really."

He just smiled at her, "I try."

* * *

After the party was over and Mark and promised her father that he'd take her home later that evening, she was sitting out in the backyard with Ross. For some reason, they had a swing set and after Ross had explained it was for his little cousins who came to visit every so often, she realized it didn't really matter why it was there and pulled him with her. They were both sitting on a swing each, going back and forth in a comfortable silence. She stared up at the sky and noticed the twinkling stars.

"This has been the most perfect night ever." She leaned her head against the railing of the swing and smiled adorably at him. Ross, who had been looking at the stars, looked back at her and smiled. She felt the butterflies in her tummy and shyly looked down. "Thank you." She said, her voice raspy.

"For what?"

"This amazing party you put together, letting me stay out here with you, everything really." She paused, then, "and for being my friend."

One of his hands reached towards her and one of hers did the same. He grabbed her hand, intertwining their fingers and then squeezed it.

"We are timeless, Laura." He reminded her.

Feeling emotional and choked up, she suddenly let go of his hand and then stood up, out of the swing. He watched her confused as she went to stand in front of him and he stood up. Then, without warning, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, hugging him tight. He hugged her back, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Happy birthday." He whispered into her hair and she just smiled and held onto him tighter.

* * *

"Yay! Finally! The day is here!" Laura laughed as Rydel moved passed her to get to her usual seat on the couch. She put the bowl of popcorn on the table in front of her and then settled in.

"Wait!" Calum yelled suddenly and everyone (meaning Rydel, Ratliff, Laura, Riker, Ryland, Stormie, Mark, Vanessa, Damiano, Ellen, Rocky and Raini) all looked at him. "Where's Ross?"

"Oh snap," Rocky said, "we can't watch the show without the other star here."

Then, suddenly he walked into the room. He didn't make eye contact with Laura, which sort of bothered her a bit, but still, he sat down beside her on the floor, close and with no distance in between them as usual.

"Okay, good you're here." Raini said, "now, let's tweet!"

Calum, Ross and Laura took out their phones, sending one last tweet about the show, and then, Rocky yelled for them to pay attention as it was starting. Everyone clapped when they saw Ross, Laura, Calum or Raini's names on the opening credits and even laughed at some of the stuff that went on in the show. Since the only people who knew what was happening on the script were obviously, Ross, Raini, Laura and Calum, everyone else had been anxiously waiting to see what they had filmed. Kevin and Heath wanted the pilot script to be so secret that not even family members could come watch them shoot. With the exception of Stormie, Ellen and Rocky being at the first table read, but they had changed the script so much since then, they weren't even aware of what had happened in the episode anymore.

"Oh my god, I'm crying." Rydel fanned her face and Vanessa agreed. "You guys are amazing."

"Yeah, wow, I don't even know what to say. I'm so happy for you!" Vanessa smiled at her younger sister. Laura just grinned back at her.

"Great show guys, really proud of all of you." Stormie said and then her eyes lit up. Ross looked at Laura who just looked back at him, confused.

"My mom likes to take pictures of us," He explained and she nodded.

"Guys, Calum, Ross, Raini and Laura, get in close together. We're going to take a picture!"

"Oh god," Rocky groaned, "here it goes. Better get used to it guys."

Ross just shook his head and then leaned in close to Laura. Raini and Calum were on either side of them, their arms wrapped around their shoulders and then Ross decided to poke Laura. She looked at him and he looked at her, both smiling as Stormie took the picture.

"Oh my god, it's so cute." She showed it to Ellen who squealed a bit and then they said to pose again, this time with everyone looking at them.

"Perfect." Stormie said and Ross and Laura looked at each other.

* * *

"So… come with me." Ross didn't even give Laura a chance to respond as he quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her with him up the stairs and into his room. Pictures had gone on for another twenty minutes and while everyone was in the living room, having dessert and a good time, Ross decided he needed some alone time with his costar.

But not like that.

He wasn't even trying to go for that.

"What are we doing in your room?" Laura asked him, amused as she stepped further into it, her arms crossed over her chest.

"We are having some Ross and Laura time," He answered back, going over to his bed, he picked something up and then handed it to her. She looked at him and then back at the gift.

"You already got me a birthday present and I'm pretty sure you're going to get me a Christmas present, so.. what's this for?" She asked.

"It's for…" He was stumped, trying to come up with something good. "It's for our show premiering and getting good views and rating, we hope."

She rolled her eyes, "seriously?"

He nodded, "that was the best i could come up with, but really. Our show is picked up, we're going to be famous and I just want you to always remember me." He urged to open the gift, not even giving her a chance to respond to that. She did and then pulled out a necklace, a beautiful necklace with a locket at the end, it was circular and it looked amazing. He took it from her, opening it and then showed her the picture inside. "It's of you, Raini, Calum and I. I thought that it would be a good reminder for… years from now, when the show's over and we're off doing our own separate things and you think back to today and you remember this moment." He wasn't sure if what he was saying was making sense, because he was a little nervous. "Unless it's cheesy and you don't like it because then-" He was cut off when her arms wrapped tightly around him and she hugged him, her head going to his chest.

"It's perfect." She whispered and looked up at him. "I love it, Ross," She smiled. "Thank you." And then, she kissed his cheek.

He smiled back. "You're very welcome."

* * *

"Guys! There you are!" Raini ran up to them as soon as they had reached the bottom step. "Did you hear?"

Ross exchanged a confused look with Laura, "um, hear what?"

"Kevin called, he said our show got one of the highest ratings the channel has ever seen!" Raini exclaimed and both Ross and Laura's mouths dropped open.

"Oh my god!" Laura squealed.

"That's amazing!" Ross high fived Calum and then all four of them shared a hug, jumped up and down excitedly.

"We're going to be spending a lot of time together." Calum commented as they calmed down.

Ross scoffed and waved his hand, "like that's a bad thing, dude, we're going to be on a hit tv show! That's so amazing!" He then turned to Laura and pulled her so close to him, she almost couldn't breathe, but she didn't care.

She was too happy to care.

* * *

"It's your birthday! It's your birthday!"

Ross woke up, sleepily and saw a very bouncy Laura jumping up and down on his bed. She moved so that she was straddling him, bouncing on top of him. He tried to not show that it was effecting him and giving him a lot of visuals. Inappropriate visuals.

"How did you even get in here?"

"I have my ways," She winked at him and he raised an eyebrow. She just rolled her eyes, "come on sleepyhead, we've got a lot to do today and your mom has breakfast ready downstairs."

"You'd think it was Christmas with the way you're acting right now," He teased.

"Close enough." Laura responded, "I don't care what day it is, all I care about is that it's your birthday and we're finally together in the same state again and we can celebrate it!"

"You're more excited about today than I am." He said, his hands going to her waist to keep her still.

"Well, get more excited," She grinned, leaning forward until their foreheads touched. "You've finally caught up in age and also, I'm going to be with you all day."

"All day?"

She nodded. "Just don't get too excited though," she teased and he rolled his eyes.

"I'm very excited." He said and she looked at him as though she didn't believe him. Not until he flipped them over and started tickling her and they were both laughing, did she realized he actually was excited. "So," He said as he breathlessly looked down at her, "what's first?"

She poked his nose, "breakfast."

* * *

"Okay, close your eyes," Laura said, covering his eyes with her hand.

"I can't, you're covering them." He said and she giggled. "Okay, so what's going to happen, am I going to get attacked by a flying monkey or… what?"

"Monkeys don't fly Ross." Laura responded and he could practically hear her eyes rolling. "Just step forward, try not to trip and be careful."

"Okay." He mumbled and stepped forward only to trip on Laura's foot. They both fell to the ground, with her on his back, until he turned over. Her hands moved from his eyes to on either side of his face and she looked down. "That didn't work, did it?" He tilted his head and she stuck her tongue out at him. Sitting up, she was straddling his waist again and he had to think of depressing, gross things to get his mind off the fact that she was right where she shouldn't be.

"Okay, so that was… a distraction, yeah let's call it that." Laura got up and held her hand up, since she wasn't so strong, he had to get himself up basically and then he turned around, after she had forced him to. She put her hands over his eyes again and then they carefully walked until he started to hear something familiar.

"Is that Rocky? Is he playing a song on the guitar? Oh! Is that a beach? Holy shit we're at the beach!"

"You sound like an excited twelve year old."

"Don't judge me," He said.

"Not judging you at all." She was silent for about three seconds. "Actually, I'm judging you so hard right now."

He sighed and she giggled.

"Okay, we're here, open." She stopped him from walking and he just stood there. "What?"

"Your hands are still covering my eyes, smart one."

She blushed, "right, okay." She took her hands off and his jaw dropped. In front of him, were his family and friends (even some family he hadn't seen since moving to Los Angeles). There was a nice area set up for a party and balloons and he just couldn't believe his eyes. He turned to Laura, his mouth dropped open a bit.

She held her hands up, "surprise?" She said with a smile on her face and he immediately hugged her.

Then, in front of everyone, he leaned in and kissed her cheek. Smiling he pulled away and then all of a sudden, his siblings wrapped their arms around him and tackled him to the ground. Laura, meanwhile, was blushing, her hand on her cheek.

"He got you good," Rydel smiled at her and she looked at her.

"Sorry?"

"He got you good," She repeated, then winked at her and went to join her brothers.

"I… have no idea what that means," Laura said and then shrugged, deciding not to worry about it and went to go get something to drink.

* * *

"Hey, Laura!" Ross called and she looked up from eating her salad to see him holding a football. Calum was standing beside him and Ross just shrugged, "come over here and play!"

She quickly shook her head, "I suck at football, actually, I suck at all sports."

"No one's going to judge your sport playing in abilities. Come on, it's gonna be me and you against Calum and Rocky since Raini couldn't make it," Ross tried to convince her more.

"You and Calum are professionals! Basically, can't say that I know anything for Rocky."

"Hey…" Rocky gave her a look.

Ross gave the football to Rocky, hitting him hard in the chest with it and then continued to walk all the way to Laura. He dropped down so that he was slight above the ground and put his arms on her knees looking up at her. "Pretty, please? Don't make me beg, it's my birthday." He pouted and she rolled her eyes.

"Fine, you're lucky it's your birthday." She muttered and he smiled, standing up, he helped her stand and together, they walked over to Calum and Rocky.

"Oh, awesome, you agreed to play." Rocky grinned, "Rydel, Ratliff, Ryland and Riker want in too."

"Rydel does?" Ross looked at her surprised.

"Only because it's your birthday," She said, "otherwise, this would so not be a question."

Laura giggled and high-fived her.

"Okay, so let's make this game… interesting," Riker said, rubbing his hands together. "Shirts against skins, Ross, since you're the birthday boy, your team is skins."

"Oh okay," Ross said, then what Rocky said caught up with him and he did a double take. "Wait, what?"

Laura's mouth dropped open. "Your brother is…"

"A pervert, I'm aware." Ross answered. "Okay, look, let's just play the game and-"

"Take off your shirt." Riker told him.

"No."

"Yes."

"Hell no."

"Hell yes."

"Fuck no."

"Fuck yes."

"…really?" Laura asked him and Ross just shrugged. She then let out a sigh and put her hand on Ross' shoulder. "It's fine, I'm wearing a bikini, so it's not that big of a deal."

He turned towards her, "I have way more respect for you than that. I'm not letting you take off your shirt."

She smiled, "I appreciate that, but I'm a big girl, I can take it."

"Laura-"

She just stepped away from him, put her hands on the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head, throwing it to the side in the sand. Ross' eyes traveled up to her chest and he swallowed hard.

"Oh-kay." He managed to say. Then he took off his shirt and he saw the look on Laura's face.

They were both officially screwed.

"Who um, who else is on our uh team?" Ross asked.

"You, Laura, Rydel and Ratliff." Riker answered.

Ross was internally imagining Riker being shipped in a big box to somewhere in the middle of Africa.

"You're making me play against my sister, half naked?"

"Better than her playing with me."

"She is playing with you idiot, just against you."

"Relax, you two, I'm wearing a bathing suit too. Don't worry."

Ross sighed, "fine," He then narrowed his eyes at his brother. "Let's just get this over with."

* * *

The game went pretty well, though Laura and Ross couldn't help but stare at each other the entire time.

Ratliff and Rydel were basically having the same problem, but other than that, the game was a good one and Ross' team one. Rocky, ever the competitive one, had insisted it was because it was Ross' birthday and the gods were letting him win because of that. Ross just rolled his eyes at that one.

After the party was over, Ross and Laura were taking a minute and walking toward the shore. He looked at her.

"I'm sorry you had to do… that uh, in the game I mean."

Laura shrugged, "don't be, it's okay." She assured him. "It was a one time thing anyway."

I hope, Ross thought.

"Thanks for my party, I um, I really enjoyed it."

Laura smiled at him, "of course." Then she stepped forward and hugged him. "Happy birthday, Ross." She whispered.

He just hugged her tighter against him.

* * *

"LAURA!" Ross was so excited, he almost tripped as he ran into the schoolroom on set, barely catching himself before he ran towards her. Laura turned around in her seat and looked at him, a sort of dazed look on her face.

She pointed her pencil at him and nodded, "you know the answer to the third question on our history homework?"

Ross blinked at her, "what? No."

"Oh," She sighed and sat up, "okay then, what is it?"

"I just heard that I got a part in a new movie." He grinned at her and immediately her eyes lit up and she squealed hugging him tight.

"Congrats! That's amazing Ross!"

"Yeah and the best part, it's going to be shot in Puerto Rico! For two whole months!"

"Oh, wow." Laura smiled at him, though he could see most of her excitement had faded away. "That's-that's great!"

He then wondered if her worries were that he'd forget her or be more interested in the girl that was playing his new love interest. So, he said the last thing either one of them expected him to say.

"Don't worry," He began, without really knowing what her insecurities were. He smiled and winked at her, it made her heart melt. "You'll always be my number one favorite girl."

She smiled. "No matter what?"

"No matter what." He leaned in just as the door opened and their on set teacher walked in, "we're timeless, remember?" He whispered in her ear and then went to sit down in his seat.

Her heart melted again and she just smiled.

* * *

They had said goodbye right before he left. It had been emotional, but she knew he wouldn't just forget about her. Plus, the photo of them she stuck into his suitcase when he wasn't looking also helped a bit. She hoped.

He had been in Puerto Rico for all of a week, both of them texting back and forth constantly when he wasn't shooting, when while she was doing homework and listening to music, her phone started to ring violently on her desk. She reached for it and flipped open, pressing the phone against her ear.

"Hello?"

"Sup?"

She smirked, "you're not as cool as you think you are."

"I can practically hear the smirk your have on in your voice."

"Damn you for knowing me so well."

Then, to her surprise, he gasped. "Did you just curse? Holy shit, I have to tweet this and text Calum and Raini."

She shook her head, giggling at his child-like behavior. "It's good to see you haven't changed a bit."

"It's only been on week, Laura. Ooh! I just got a kickass idea."

"I'm afraid to hear it," She said, half hesitantly and half teasingly. She could practically hear the eye roll coming all the way from Puerto Rico, though imaging it sort of helped too.

"We need awesome nicknames for each other."

"Nicknames?"

"Yeah, like… Laur or Totally Sexy Mother fucker."

She couldn't help it and burst into laughter, "I'm not calling you that, no way."

"Eh, it could happen someday."

"Don't get your hopes up." She responded back, then looked at her nails which were newly painted bright red. "What color hat are you wearing?" She randomly asked.

"Uh, yellow, why?"

She grinned, "okay then, Mustard."

Luckily, he caught on to what she was implying, "Ah, I'm totally picking up what you're putting down… I think. Ketchup."

She grinned, "if I were there, I'd high five you, but since I can't… we'll just imagine I did so, missed and hit you in the head."

"Oh great, thanks for that." He responded back and she laughed.

"So, how is it, in Puerto Rico? Filming going well?"

"Uh yeah, super well. Well, I'm learning the dances now, but holy shit they're awesome."

"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it."

"Yeah and my costars want to meet you, well, you, Raini and Calum at some point. I've talked about you three enough." Laura laughed. "Anyway, how's life back in Los Angeles?"

"Same pretty much, other than not going to set, I'm just in school, doing my homework, getting my edu-ma-cation on."

"School on set is so different without you. I'm the only one still in high school so… it gets kinda lonely."

"No worries, Shorey…" Her eyes lit up, "hey! I like that!" She heard Ross laugh, "anyway, when you get back and we start filming again, it'll be like we never left. Or you never did, or… you get my point."

"Yes," Ross laughed, "I do. Sadly."

"I'd stick my tongue out at you, but you can't see it, so just visualize it for me."

"Sure thing."

It was comfortably silent for about a minute, before Ross spoke.

"So, what should we talk about?"

"Don't you have to work?"

"Yeah, but not for another-hey, Rocky!" Laura burst into laughter, "Rocky just hit me with a football, that asshole!"

"Go get him," She told him, "we'll talk later."

He sighed, "fineee, but this conversation isn't over, like at all."

"We weren't really having one, but okay. Let's just say it never was over, deal?"

"Deal. See ya, Ketchup."

"Later Mustard." And with that, she hung up a huge smile on her face as she started working on her homework again.

* * *

When he came back from Puerto Rico, she noticed a few things.

One, he was very tan.

Two, his hair seemed blonder, but that was probably from the sun.

And three, he was constantly smiling. Though, that was nothing new.

Though, when they had reunited on set, they had immediately ran towards each other and he caught her, spinning her around until they both got dizzy, laughing the whole time. Then they shared a long hug and he went to go greet Raini, Calum and other crew members.

In between takes, he'd tell a story about how he almost got eaten by a shark, and even though it was clear he was fine, Laura still got anxious just thinking about what could've happened, had the shark ate Ross or one of his brothers for lunch one day.

She was relieved it didn't happen though.

"Damn I've only been back for about a week and already I have to go back to school," Ross mumbled as he tiredly sat down in the chair beside her. He put his hands over his face and she looked at him.

"You okay? You do seem tired."

"It's probably the jet-lag," He said and smiled over at her, "no worries, I'm good."

She smiled back. "Okay, well, what should we start on first?"

"I say," Ross pointed his finger in the air, "that we, meaning you and I," He clarified for no reason, "should start with the afternoon nap!"

"Alright, superhero, let's not get too crazy." She joked, her hand going on top of his, she put it down beside them and they both looked at each other. "Let's study and then if you want, you can take a nap later."

Ross groaned, "you're trying to kill me woman."

She laughed, "I'm just trying to help you get an education, so.. come on, let's get studying!"

"You do you realize you're more excited about this than I am right?" He asked, facing her. She smirked and leaned in close enough, their faces were an inch apart.

"I did miss this," She tilted her head, "us bantering back and forth like the way we do. I knew something had felt strange while you were away." She joked. He rolled his eyes in response, then she just smiled, "I'll make you enjoy studying today."

He gave her a look, "bring it."

"Oh, it's brought." She said and then with the textbook she had in her hands, she slammed it shut, causing him to jump in his seat and then glare at her. She just grinned. "Told ya."

* * *

"I have to pee, I have to pee, I have to pewee!" Ross sang as he sat with his script on his lap, his leg bouncing against the table his foot was resting on.

"So, go pee." Calum told him.

"That requires moving."

"Okay, then pee in your pants, see if I care." Calum answered.

"Wow, you're brutal," Ross said and then stood up, stretching just as Laura walked in with Raini behind her. She hadn't realized it, but she had stared at him for a moment longer then she should've and of course, Ross being the little shit he was, had noticed, a knowing smile on his face. She blushed and turned away. Then Ross started to bounce in his spot again.

"What's gotten into you?" Laura asked.

"He has to pee," Calum explained and Ross nodded, holding up a finger he quickly ran into the bathroom in his dressing room and Laura sighed, the door shutting as she sat down next to where Ross' spot was. Raini sat down next to Calum. Since Ross was a guy and it took guys four seconds to pee, he was out in no time.

"Much better," He said and then sat down beside Laura, picking up his script again.

"I question how your brain works sometimes," Laura commented, but shook her head, grabbing her own script. "So, anyway, back to this, even though we weren't with it to begin with, don't judge me, we're doing a crossover with Jessie! That's awesome!"

"Yeah!" They all high-fived and cheered.

"It's the New Year's special or whatever," Ross said, looking over the script. "Ooh, and Jessie's a badass."

"Austin gets to finally live his dream!" Laura's eyes lit up, "of performing in Times Square I mean." She amended and Ross smiled at her cuteness.

"Oh and Austin and Ally share a kiss!" Calum commented as he flipped to the end.

"WHAT?" Ross and Laura exclaimed together, looking at each other strangely before looking back at Calum who just smiled at them.

"Just kidding."

"Ah fuck you, Calum." Ross muttered, "scaring the shit out of us like that."

Raini laughed, amused, "would that be so bad? If Austin and Ally kissed?"

Ross and Laura looked at each other thinking it over, before Ross turned to Raini, "no." He answered honestly, his eyes going back to Laura, he didn't take them off her. "It wouldn't be bad at all."

"Yeah, I mean, we could handle it, we are professional actors after all," Laura added and Ross nodded.

"It'll be the best kissing scene anyone has seen since… whatever the best kissing scene was before." Ross grinned. "It'll be epic."

"Yeah," Laura blushed, "epic and amazing."

They pounded their fists, "whazzup!" They said and then laughed as their costars watched them, amused.

* * *

"Dang, those two are still going at it." Cameron commented as Debby just nodded, looking at Ross and Laura worriedly. He leaned in close to her and whispered, "do they know they're making us uncomfortable?"

Debby shrugged, "no idea." She answered as Calum and Raini walked up to them, she pointed at Ross and Laura and they both let out a sigh. She did a double take, "what what?"

"How are you two so nonchalant about this?" Cameron demanded.

Calum looked at them, "when you've been working with them for the last year, you get used to it. Trust me, this is normal… for them. They do this all the time."

"What argue like that?" Debby asked, she was surprised.

Raini waved her hand in the air, "it's just play fighting if you notice, Laura rolls her eyes a lot and they laugh."

Debby and Cameron focused their attention on them again.

"No, I do not look like Ally most of the time, nor do am I a smart ass like her either." Laura was saying.

Ross' eyes lit up, "you just cursed, Laura Marano!" He fake gasped and Laura rolled her eyes.

"So what? Damn, shit, ass, douche, fuck…" She trailed off and then made a face, "oh my god that sounds so weird coming from me."

"You're telling me." Ross commented and she smacked him, "ow! Woman!"

"You deserve that."

"You're feisty!"

"What are you going to do, cry to your mamma about it?" Laura pouted, "aww, poor Ross."

"I was… not." He said lamely. "Why are you such a pain in my ass?"

"Because you were one first!"

"That doesn't even make sense!" Ross threw his hands up in the air. "How could I have been one when you were the one who started it?"

"Yeah," Raini said, bringing herself, Calum, Debby and Cameron back to their conversation. "This might take a while." She then smiled to herself and shook her head, walking away as Calum did the same.

"So.. in other words…" Cameron began.

"We're pretty much screwed." Debby answered and then opened her script reading over her lines and trying her hardest to ignore the bickering couple in front of her.

* * *

"Ross!" Laura squealed as he splashed her.

He just grinned up at her from the pool, "I'm sorry, no, actually not really."

"I can see that." She narrowed her eyes at him.

"You should come inside with me…" He trailed off as something dirty most likely entered his mind and his eyes lit up. Laura rolled her eyes. In the last year of them working together, she'd gotten to know his dirty side pretty well. That boy's mind was always in the gutter.

Time to surprise him. "Wouldn't that be you coming inside of… something?"

Ross almost choked on the pool water. Then he recovered once what she said registered in his head and caught up with him. "Wait, did you say something?"

"You know what I mean." Laura glared at him.

He shook his head, "no, I don't actually know what you're talking about."

"Don't make me say it."

He splashed her and she gasped, water dripping from her hair as she stood up from her kneeling position next to the pool. "Ross!" She squealed.

"What?" He asked innocently.

"You are such a little shit," She moaned, trying to dry herself off from the water. She looked at him, "if you say a word about how I cursed, I swear to god I will hurt you."

"Pfft." He waved his hand in the air, "you couldn't hurt a fly."

"Oh," She narrowed her eyes, "you'd be surprised."

Ross just rolled his eyes, moving his arms and legs around in the water to stay floating. "Come on, just say it. We took the class together, you and I know both what we're talking about here."

"I also remember when you'd wake up in the morning with your 'problems'" She used her fingers for quotations.

"And we're changing the subject now, you're right, I won't make you say it." Ross said as he turned to swim to the other side of the pool.

"No, wait." Laura held her hand up, grinning at him. "We're talking about it."

"I don't get you, you won't say vagina or penis, but you'll talk about my morning boners?" Ross asked her and she felt her heart skip and her stomach flip. She was pretty much surprised by what he said, so surprised that she had almost missed it.

"Uh, yeah." She answered back awkwardly. "You started it."

"Oh," Ross said, tilting his head to the side as he got out of the pool to stand in front of her, "did I?"

He was so close to her and they were so close to the edge of the pool. He could easily pick her up and jump into it with her, but since she was wearing her bathing suit underneath her tank top and shorts, he knew he wouldn't do that. At least she hoped he wouldn't.

He suddenly hugged her and she felt herself being pressed against his warm, wet chest, her eyes widened and he just hugged her tighter. She put her hand on his arm and looked down at the water.

"Ross, you're not going to-"

"What, I can't give you a hug?" He asked her and then pulled back slightly to look at her. Damn, she thought, looking at his body. He was definitely hot and she couldn't deny that.

Though, to her surprise, he didn't let her go.

"No, no, you um, you can do that, yeah, totally fine with me."

"You're nervous." He commented.

"Nope, not nervous at all!" She threw her hands up and smiled, "why would you say that?"

"Your body is shaking and we're standing like two feet from the edge of the pool," He responded flatly.

Smartass, she thought. Good thing she didn't say it out loud, he would've given her shit for that too probably.

He then let his hands wander and she didn't stop him, wondering what it was he was up to. She then thought to the conversation they had with Raini and Calum a couple weeks ago about what how they would feel about Austin and Ally kissing. She wondered if he was going to do it, kiss her.

She was shocked to find out she wouldn't stop him if he did.

His hands went to the edge of her tank top and he lifted it, bunching it up in his hands, over her head and threw it to the side.

Yeah, she was officially frozen. Like a statue. He looked at her body and she closed her eyes, hoping he wouldn't think she was unattractive.

"You're beautiful," He whispered, much to her surprise and her eyes snapped open. He smiled at her, held a finger up and then took her phone from her back pocket. He walked over to the table and put it down on top of it, before going back to her.

"You just called me beautiful," She managed to say once her mind caught up with her thoughts.

He shrugged as though it wasn't a big deal, "so, you are, I was just telling you the truth."

She realized something.

Blondie was never going to stop surprising her, not ever.

Not that she had a problem with that or anything.

She then put her hands on her jean shorts and his eyes traveled down to where her hands were. She tried not to let the fact he was watching get to her. She unbuttoned them and then unzipped them, stepping forward, she let her pants fall from her fingers and then she took off her converses, one by one, before going to stand right in front of him. She saw Ross swallow hard.

"Just uh be happy I didn't ask you to skinny dip," He finally managed to say and then he turned away, though she could see it was hard for him. That make her smirk.

He closed his eyes and then opened them, staring at the pool.

She couldn't help but notice his hair was still dripping wet.

They were both lost in thought, so consumed with what they were thinking, they weren't really paying attention to anything else.

Well, Laura wasn't anyway.

Without warning, Ross' arms wrapped around her again and he lifted her up. She realized what was going on and shook her head.

"No, no, Ross, don't you dare."

"Do what?" He asked, nonchalantly.

"You're going to throw me in the water, I know you and I know that's what you're going to do." She answered and he shook his head.

"I wouldn't do that to you."

"Oh real-" She started but before he could finish he jumped in, still holding her and she let out a scream loud enough to be heard in the studio lot where they shot their show.

She stayed under water for a few minutes, opening her eyes she saw Ross grinning at her and she just pouted adorably, crossing her arms over her chest, before realizing she needed to breath and pushed herself to the surface, sputtering and shaking her hair out.

Ross just laughed at her.

She splashed him, "you little shit!"

He was laughing too hard to even comment on the fact that she had cursed again.

She just shook her head and swam to the shallow end of the pool. He suddenly stopped laughing and swam towards her, beating her to the wall.

"Don't be mad, it was just… for fun." He told her.

"Well, you-you just did what you did and I can't help but like be mad at you because you did it and your body is just… ugh!" She threw her hands in the air and he raised his eyebrows, much to her exasperation. She pouted again, "you're still a little shit."

"And you're becoming bolder, I kinda like it." He winked at her, "it's hot."

Was it her or was the sexual tension in between them so thick a chainsaw and fifty jack hammers couldn't cut through it?

She shook her head, not wanting to think about it.

So instead, she just threw her hands in the air exasperated and let out a yell. He just laughed, wrapping his arms around her, their bodies were close together, once again and this time she could feel his skin on hers which felt slippery because of the water and she sighed happily against him deciding not to worry about their feelings and focus more on having fun with her best friend.

Yeah that's what she'd do. Good plan.

She mentally gave herself two thumbs up and then shook her head at the stupidity of the thought.

* * *

"Come on, get loud, loud…" She smiled as watched Ross sing in the sound booth, his hand on the headphone and his eyes closed in concentration as he sang the words on the paper in front of him. She was sitting with Rydel, Rocky, Ratliff and Riker, getting into the song and nodding her head to the beat. It was a good song, she had to admit.

"Alright Ross, you're good." Riker said, pressing a button and Ross came out of the booth, sitting down beside Laura, he took the water bottle she handed him.

"You sounded good," Laura told him, "well… almost good."

"Almost?"

"Yeah, Austin would've probably sounded a bit better." She teased and he narrowed his eyes at her, giving her what she called his 'wtf unamused face'. She giggled and he turned to face her.

"Oh really?" He asked and she nodded. "You do realize, Austin and I are the same person and also, how do I know how you sound when you sing? Ally has stage fright."

"Yeah, but Laura doesn't." She pointed out and he furrowed his eyebrows trying to understand what she was saying.

"You guys are sounding more and more like a married couple everyday," Rydel commented.

Rocky nodded, "yeah, just do it already and get married."

Laura blushed and Ross' eyes widened. His siblings just laughed at him.

"So, Laura, you coming to our concert on friday?" Ratliff asked her.

She nodded, "wouldn't miss it." She smiled at Ross and he smiled back at her, but through his sincerity, she saw the familiar tinkle in his eye. And then he just threw himself towards her, tickling her and she fell back on the couch, laughing so hard she was almost kicking him.

"Now, you definitely have to come." Ross said after a few moments.

"Why's that?" Laura asked him, leaning on her elbows to look at him better. Her hair was messed up and he caught himself before he could speaking.

Holy shit she was hot, he thought, but quickly shook his head.

"Because if you don't, I'll just tickle you to death again."

Laura laughed, "and what an amazing way to die," she answered back and he smiled at her.

"Smartass." He muttered and she laughed again.

* * *

He was an amazing performer. She couldn't deny that. She'd seen him perform many times on the show, but when he was with his band, it was a completely different Ross. He loved what he did and she could see it, clear as day.

His concert had been amazing. More than amazing. Like, fanatical amazing. That wasn't a word, but she didn't care.

After the concert, he had started to become busier. She hardly saw him anymore unless it was for shooting or school. To say she missed him would be an understatement, but she understood why they didn't spend much time together anymore.

She had also started to notice he was looking more and more tired, but he assured her he was fine. Between shooting and then studio time for both the show and his band, and then flying at the possible last second to go to a concert in another city or state, he was just exhausted.

She really didn't know how he did it sometimes.

Sixteen years old and already acting like an adult. Crazy.

It was absolutely insane.

* * *

A knock on her window startled her and she turned towards it to see that Ross was there, on the railing of her balcony. She looked at him, confused and opened the window, letting him inside.

"What are you doing here?"

"I haven't seen you in like eighty years."

"We saw each other earlier on set." She reminded him.

"It's not the same." He put his hands in his pockets and shyly looked at her. "I just want some… Ketchup and Mustard time, you know?"

She smiled, "okay, well then, come in. Let's have some Ketchup and Mustard time." He surprised her by putting one hand into her hair then and the other around her waist, hugging her close.

"You're the best, you know that?" He whispered into her hair and she slowly nodded her head.

"I get that a lot." She teased and relaxed against him, feeling so safe and comfortable. After a few moments, she looked up at him. "Do you want to lay down, you look exhausted."

He shook his head, though the yawn he let out told her otherwise. "I'm good, I'm good."

"Ross," She scolded, taking his hand, she pulled him with her to her bed. "It's okay, just sleep."

"But we're supposed to be having Ketchup and Mustard time." He pouted and she wondered why he had named it that, despite it being their nicknames for each other (which no one understood really but them) he'd never said it like that before.

"It's fine, I'm tired too. Our Ketchup and Mustard time can be spent, sleeping with… each other…" She trailed off, a blush coming to her cheeks. "Not like that though."

"This time, I wasn't even thinking like that," He yawned, "that was all you, babe."

She smiled at the fact he called her babe, but didn't mention anything about it.

"You seriously need to stop being so… cute when your sleepy." She told him as they both laid down on her bed. He held his arms open towards her and she scooted closer to him. He hugged her and she settled herself against his chest. "No uninvited guests tonight okay?" She teased.

He shook his head, "I can't control that."

That made her body tingle.

"Goodnight." She whispered, running her fingers through his hair. "Get some sleep."

"I love that you know exactly what I needed," He whispered to her, settling down next to her. She smiled at him. "Goodnight, Ketchup."

"Goodnight Mustard."

And with that, she closed her eyes, the exhaustion taking over her body and mind and soon drifted off to sleep.

* * *

When she woke up, she noticed that Ross was already awake, his fingers tapping her arms, he was lying on his back and staring up at the ceiling. It was still dark outside so she looked at her clock and noticed it was only four in the morning.

"Hey," She said softly and he looked at her, "why are you awake?"

He shrugged, "I couldn't sleep anymore."

She sat up a bit, leaning on her elbow, "then why didn't you wake me up?"

"You looked peaceful, I didn't want to ruin that." He answered and she looked down a small smile on her face. "Hey, Laura?" He asked her and she looked up at him again. "Do you ever wonder, what it would be like if… um, we were uh… more than friends?"

She froze.

Did he really just ask her that and make her heart skip and her body feel all mushy all over?

Yeah, she realized, he really did. And he'd been nervous about it too. How damn cute was he? Seriously.

"Sometimes," She admitted and that surprised him enough he looked at her, despite having looked shyly away a few moments before. "We're so close and… flirty if you haven't noticed."

"I noticed."

She smiled, "but I don't know, we're on a show together and I feel like if something were to happen and we broke up, then it would just be awkward for us, you know? Shooting together, acting like a couple if Austin and Ally ever get their shit together and admit they like each other and… I don't know, just a bunch of stuff."

He was deep in thought, she could see it. So deep in thought, he let her cursing vanish into the air somewhere.

"Would you change it? Our relationship that we have now?" He asked her and then she realized they were staring right at each other.

She didn't want to look away.

"No." She answered, "I love the way we are and if we do someday, become more, then… that's great."

He smiled at her and she smiled back, relieved, "I wouldn't either," He answered and then his hand found hers. He intertwined their fingers and she lay her head on his chest again, smiling happily. Sure they may have sort of admitted feelings for each other, but they hadn't made anything solid. They were just.. being friends who flirted with each other. Sort of like friends with benefits but without the benefits. So just friends with-wow, she was laughing at her own internal lame joke.

"Timeless, right?" He asked and she nodded.

"We are timeless," She repeated.

She rubbed his fingers with her thumb and looked up at him. She giggled and he just shook his head, laughing as she cuddled closer to him, giggling again when he looked down at her.

She did something she hadn't done in a while.

She reached up and kissed his cheek. He looked down at her again and she blushed, turning away. He shook his head and laughed and she just giggled again, closing her eyes, she decided that in that moment, with Ross, was the top best moment she'd ever shared with him.

She fell asleep with a huge smile on her face and knew that Ross had one too. She most definitely wasn't alone.

* * *

"Laura, I just got the best news ever!" Ross told her as she walked on to the set early in the morning. She held her finger up and he looked at her confused as she walked into her dressing room, so she could put her things down. Then, she turned to face him. "Don't you want to hear my news?"

"Yes! Sorry, go ahead." She said, "I haven't fully woken up yet and this stuff was kinda heavy."

"You could have told me to help you carry that you know." He told her.

"I wanted to be strong for once," She laughed, then playfully shoved his shoulder, "come on, tell me your news, I'm dying with anticipation here."

"Oh yeah, right sorry." He handed her a paper and she took it from him, reading it over.

Her eyes lit up and her mouth dropped open, "you're almost done with your high school credits, you're going to graduate soon! Ross that's amazing!" She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. "Congrats, I am so proud of you!"

"Yeah, I'm proud of myself too." He took the paper from her, slowly and then they realized what that meant, once the news had settled in.

"I still have a year left." Laura said, and Ross nodded, sadly. "Once you graduate, I'll be in school all alone." She blinked, "wow, that's kind of weird to think about."

He just shrugged and put an arm around her shoulders, "I'll still visit you if you want. I mean, I'm charming and awesome, our teacher will have to let me in."

There was a rule when they were both in school that no one could come and bother them. Sometimes, most often, they distracted each other, but when it came to everyone else, they weren't allowed to go inside the school room during the hours they were in school. Unless it was their parents or for a special reason, one of their siblings.

Laura smiled up at him, "I think she'd make an exception for you."

"You think so?"

"I know so." She leaned in close and playfully hooped his nose, "like you said, you're charming and awesome, so… yeah. She'd have to give you an exception."

He nodded, "I still have a few months left, so we don't have to worry about it yet. But in the meantime…" He grinned at her, "we should see who will make it to Sonic Boom first!" With that he ran out of the room and she laughed, following him and running out of the room.

* * *

She heard a knock on her bedroom door and opened it, sleepily to find Ross standing on the other side of it.

"What the-why are you here?"

"So nice to see you too, Laura," He teased and she rolled her eyes, stepping inside to let him in.

"Now answer my question."

"I am here, to show you… something and then take you to get your something so really, it's all about the something."

She blinked, "my brain is too tired to keep up with a word of what you just said."

He smiled and then pulled out his wallet, then he handed her the card and she took it from him, confused, before flipping it over and seeing what it was.

She gasped. "Oh my god! Ross! You got your driver's license!" She squealed bouncing in her spot and hugged him tight. "I…when did you do this?"

"A couple days ago, but I was busy with band stuff, so I forgot to tell you. Technically, you are the first person aside from my family who knows."

She grinned, then her eyes lit up.

"Yes, today you go to get your license, I remembered that."

"So you were listening a few months ago when I told you."

He nodded, "so come on, my mother and your mother are in the car waiting downstairs, get your ass dressed and we're going to spend a wonderful morning at the DMV. The happiest place on earth."

She laughed, "I'm pretty sure that's Disneyland." She told him as she went to her dresser. She pulled out her clothes and then smiled, stepping passed him and into the bathroom.

"Yeah, another place we should go visit soon." He called to her.

"Tell me when and I'm there!" She called back and came back out in jeans and a simple flowy gray t-shirt. She put on some make-up and then took her driving manual and phone with her before exiting the room with Ross behind her.

"Good luck on your driver's test!" They heard Vanessa yell.

"Thanks!" Laura yelled back and with that got in the car, both she and Ross were in the backseat.

They made small talk with their mothers, Stormie asking if Laura was excited and ready for her test and then other things.

"Okay," Ross said just as she was about to get in the car and take the test, "you got this, you're ready for this." He smiled at her, "I believe in you."

"Thanks. I believe in me too. Kinda sorta." She giggled at his look, "kidding!" She hugged him and he held her tight, before she got in the car.

He was nervous while waiting for her to come back. The whole process took about twenty minutes, but still. He was just anxious and dying to know what happened. Soon, he saw her and noticed that her expression was very neutral. He stood up, "so?" He prompted.

She stared at him, blinking her eyes, before she let out a squeal and jumped her arms wrapping around his neck and legs around his waist hugging him. "I passed!"

"Hell yeah!" He said and laughed hugging her tight. "I knew you could do it!"

"Yeah," She grinned, pulling away to look at him. She then lowered herself to the ground. "Thanks for coming, it means so much to me that you took time out of your busy schedule to be here."

"Hey," Ross smiled, nudging her with his finger, she looked at him. "You know I'd do anything for you."

She definitely knew it was true and felt the same way for him. Smiling she hugged him again and then squealed, she now had a license and she could drive anywhere she wanted without having to depend on her sister and her parents anymore. That, she was excited for more than anything. Independence.

"Are we the type of people to randomly dance in public?" Ross randomly asked her and she looked at him confused. His hand went to hers and he spun her around, her hair flying behind her and she laughed as he spun her around again then she fell and he caught her. "Caught you that time." He winked.

"Austin technically was the one who didn't catch Ally, but yeah, you did. Crazy trust exercise." He brought her up and then they stared at each other. "I can't tell what you're thinking when you look at me like that."

"I can't tell what you're thinking either."

"Well now we know, we aren't mind readers."

A knowing smirk came on Ross' face. "Don't look now," He began and she looked at him confused, "but you're about to be spun around again." He kept his word and Laura squealed. Their parents came up to them at that moment, smiling at how adorable they were.

"Alright you two," Stormie said, "we have enough time to get some lunch before Ross has to go to the studio." She smiled warmly at Laura, "congratulations on passing your test Laura."

She smiled at her, "thanks." She looked at Ross, "I just needed my good luck charm." She winked at him and he smiled such a charming smile that it made her stomach flutter.

Yeah, she knew their friendship was progressing into more and if his smile had been any indication, he wasn't willing to stop it from happening either.

* * *

_Oh yeahhhhh. That really happened. Thanks for reading! Hah._

_So review with your favorite part. I WANNA KNOW. What you like, what you think I should change, etc._

_How cute is it that their relationship is progressing? Eep, I wish it was real man. That would just be kickass. I know I said I didnt want drama but I'm going to put just a little bit because what friendship that's progressing into more doesnt have a little drama in it? Ja feel?_

Alright, well, I'm gonna go write the next chapter for Let's Go Nowhere that we know. It's a biggie though guys, what everyone has been waiting for (which, by the way, I still am confused by, lol) is going to happen. Not the birth of the baby, the other thing... thumbs up if you know what I'm talking about.

Oh and I made an instagram, dont know how to use it, posted two pics deleted them and yeah. I'm strange, I know, but I'm going to try to use it. If you want to follow me, go for it. It's the same as my twitter name. And if you have a twitter, explain how the video part works haha. I'm so lost when it comes to that. I'm so old school, I swear. Well, not really since I have an iPhone, but still. I'm not too big on social networks to be honest, so.. it's new to me. No judging, kay? Cool.

Much love xx


	3. Chapter 3

_Thank you guys so much for your reviews and support! It means so much to me. I'm so happy you like this story :]_

_Oh and there's a sort of weird awkward part with Ross and Laura and pee... my friend did that to me once so.. I put it in the story hah, but I've never dated him. We're really close, like brother/sister close, but anyway, yeah. Skip it if you don't like it. I won't be offended. _

_Enjoy! I don't own anything. Though I wish I did, but I don't, because I think owning Ross Lynch would be kinda awkward so... yeah. _

* * *

She was just minding her own business when she felt it.

A tug.

On her hair.

She ignored it and then it happened again.

Rolling her eyes and letting out a sigh, she turned, only to see Ross was sitting very close to her, his eyes on her hair as he reached forward and tugged on a curl. He seemed to notice the look she was giving him because he just smiled goofily at her.

"Your hair!" He said, his tone showing just how fascinated he was by it.

"Yes, my hair… what about it?"

"It's blonde and pretty…" He said dreamily, tugging on a curl again. He then blinked his eyes and snapped out of it, "I mean, you know it's nice."

She giggled, "I'm hair has been dyed like this for weeks now."

"So? It doesn't mean it's still not amazing or beautiful."

She blushed at his compliment, "thanks. Why do you keep tugging it?"

"Because I can't tug my own hair," He responded matter-of-factly. He scoffed, "duh."

She laughed, "well, fine. Tug my hair all you want then."

He smirked at her words, "oh trust me, I will."

She didn't know what he had meant by that.

* * *

"Alright, Ross, it looks like you've finished all of your high school requirements," Laura watched as their on set teacher closed her binder and smiled at Ross. "You're officially a high school graduate. Congratulations."

Ross' face lit up and he turned to Laura, who had a smile on her face as well. Then, he stood up, wrapping his arms around her and pulled her up and towards him, hugging her tight. "I finished high school!" He spun her around and she giggled. "It's officially over!"

"Yeah!" Laura laughed when he finally put her down, "congrats, that's amazing."

"Yes! Now I can finally focus on my band and the show and Teen Beach Movie and… oh shit, I have to call my mom!" He said excitedly, pulling his phone out and unlocking it. He found his mother's number and immediately dialed it, walking out of the school room. She heard him say, "mom? Yeah! I'm done with high school!" On his way out and she laughed to herself, her head turned since she watched him leave.

"You're next," Her teacher winked at her.

"Yeah, in another year and a half," Laura sighed, "but still, I'm happy for him."

"You should be."

Then her teacher winked at her.

She stayed in her seat, more confused than ever by what she meant.

* * *

Australia.

They were going to fucking Australia.

She could hardly believe it.

The last few months had consisted of a super busy Ross, since he had graduated, done way more stuff with his band, like recording more music for their album, more shooting for their show and then some re-shoots and promotion for his movie. She hardly saw him anymore unless they had to work.

But once they both heard they were going to Australia for a few days to promote their show there, she couldn't have been more excited.

She was happy for Ross, really. But she missed the hell out of him.

It was just herself, Ross and Stormie that were going. Since they both just had their seventeenth birthdays, they were still underage and unable to go without a parent. Her mother and father and his father couldn't make it, so Stormie had agreed and offered to take them both.

They were leaving in a few hours and she was so damn excited she could hardly sit still.

Her feet bounced excitedly as she packed, humming to herself and listening to her music all the while.

Her phone went off and she picked it up to see she had a message from Ross.

_Hey, done packing yet?_

She smiled and then texted him back, _nope. Almost though. How about you? Making sure you've got all your hair products in a separate bag?_

She could practically see his eyes rolling with the response he sent her, _haha, I don't use that much hair product you know._

_Right, that's how you keep your hair so perfect. Sure._ She responded back just as the door to her bedroom opened and Vanessa walked in with their mother, after knocking on it. Laura turned to them, a smile on her face.

Vanessa held her hands open to her younger sister, "so you're going to Australia. I have to admit, I'm a little jealous."

Laura nodded, "so excited for it. I can't even believe it's real."

Her mother smiled at her, "it's real sweetie. I'm excited for you." Laura smiled back at her. "Just promise me, no funny business with Ross while you're gone."

Laura's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened, she then blushed once she saw Vanessa's smile and playfully smacked her mother, "mom! We're not-no, we're friends, just-just friends."

"Right and your father is the king of Italy."

"There isn't a king of-" Laura began but her mother shook her head.

"I've got to go to the store, pick up some last minute things for you to take on your trip and some things for the house. Is there anything in particular you need?"

Laura shook her head, "nope, I'm good I think. Thank you."

Her mother nodded and with that, left the room. Once the door closed behind her, Vanessa turned to Laura, a huge, knowing smile on her face.

"Okay, I know what you're thinking and the answer is no."

Vanessa's smile dropped and it made Laura giggle.

"Come on, it's me, I'm your big sister, your best friend, we tell each other everything. Don't hide it." She said as she sat on Laura's bed. "Tell me the truth, do you have feelings for Ross?"

"Yes? No. I don't know."

"That's not an answer, but since you said yes first, I'm taking it as a yes." Vanessa pumped her fist in the air.

"Don't get too excited," Laura muttered, "we had a talk a few months ago and he asked how I would feel if we ever became more than friends and I said it'd be great."

"And what did he say?"

"He said the same thing." She finally confessed, letting out a breath when she did.

It took about a second, but Vanessa jumped up, squealing when she did.

"Hell yeah! Rydel owes me five bucks!"

"Rydel owes you what now?" Laura raised an eyebrow, "and since when are you two friends?"

"Hi, you're the lead on a hit tv show with her younger brother, of course we're friends," Vanessa pointed out and Laura nodded, agreeing. "You know what's going to happen while you're gone right?" She asked and Laura shook her head. "Okay, look, you're going to be on a fifteen hour flight or whatever to Australia, bored out of your little underage minds on the way there and on the way back and you're going to probably have urges."

"Urges?"

"Yes, that's what I said."

Laura sighed, "I took a health class, you really don't need to give me the sex talk right now. Besides I had it already with both mom and dad," She shuddered, "that was awkward enough."

Vanessa laughed, "yeah, it was really awkward when I had it with them, so I can't blame you there. But anyway, I bet you you guys are going to make out at least… three times while you're there and if I'm wrong, which I won't be, you'll get to tell me I told you so. And if I'm right, I get to tell you I told you so."

"Fine, but just know, you're going to be very wrong about it." Laura told her, "we had that talk ages ago."

"You see each other all the time on set, feelings don't just change like that," Vanessa snapped her fingers for emphasis. "I probably won't see you before you leave, but have a safe and fun trip, text me as often as you can, tell me everything and…" She smiled, "I love you, baby sis." She hugged her and Laura smiled, hugging her back.

"I love you too, big sis."

* * *

"See?" Ross said as soon as she brought her tiny suitcase to his father's car which he generously helped her out with by putting it in the trunk for her. "My hair isn't so perfect now." She blinked at him, confused, when she realized he was talking about their texting conversation earlier.

"Right, well…" She reached up, her fingers going into his hair and messed it up. "I guess you're right, it's soft and not stiff. I'll give you that."

He grinned at her and looked up at his hair, "you messed up my hair."

"Keep it that way," Laura winked at him as she got in the car before he could, "it's sexy."

She didn't bother seeing the look on his face after she said that, but Vanessa's words flashed in her mind. Her first trip out of the country without her family was about to happen and it was with her adorable co-star she had a huge crush on. Yeah, she was pretty sure Vanessa was going to be right about what she said.

Damn you, Vanessa, she thought.

She waved goodbye to her mother and father as Mark pulled away from the curb, Stormie talking to him in the front while she and Ross stayed quiet. She was staring out of the window, watching the city pass her by, when she felt something on her hand and she looked down only to see it was Ross'. She then looked up at him only to see he was looking back at her and smiled. He smiled back, squeezing her hand and then nonchalantly looked out of the window again.

They both didn't let go of each other's hand until they got to the airport.

* * *

Three hours.

It had been three hours on the plane and already she wanted to shoot herself in the foot. She was so bored.

She couldn't sleep because she was too fidgety. She just wanted to be there already, her tummy filling with butterflies at the thought of being in a country she had dreamed of visiting for so long.

She couldn't wait.

"Stop moving," She heard and looked over her shoulder to see Ross was sleepily looking at her. "You're making it difficult for me to sleep."

"Sorry." She mumbled an apology, "but I can't sleep, I'm too excited."

He stared at her for a moment, then looked at his mother only to see she was fast asleep. He knew once she was asleep, she was asleep and would be for a while. He looked at Laura who just blinked her eyes back at him. So, he made a quick decision and lifted the arm rest in between them, holding his arm out towards her. "Come here," He whispered sleepily.

She nodded and then lay her head on his chest and he settled into his seat more, getting more comfortable.

"I like your chest, it's always so warm and comfy to lay on." She admitted drawing circles on it. "It's also making me a little sleepy."

"That was the point," He answered, his eyes closed. She looked up at him, studying him for a few moments silently. She then saw him smile, "I know you're staring at me."

"I wasn't." She tried to deny.

"It's okay," He opened his eyes to look at her, "I can't help it that I'm that attractive," that only earned him a playful smack in the stomach, Laura shaking her head against his chest when suddenly he stiffened.

"What's wrong?" She asked, confused.

"Your uh, hand, it's kind of…" He trailed off, "not to sound like my fifteen year old self, but your hand is really close to… my you know, friend and if you keep it there then… things will happen." He managed to say, hoping he didn't make her uncomfortable.

To his surprise, she smiled. She moved her hand lower and he stiffened more.

"Laura…"

"What? I'm not doing anything," She said as she rubbed his stomach with her hand, "you're nervous for no reason."

Her eyes lit up, "let's play a game, Sleepyhead."

He shook his head, "I'm not sleepy anymore."

"Okay, then let's play a game." She repeated.

"Does it have anything to do with being nervous?" He wondered and she just grinned, going into her bag that was at her feet, she pulled something out, hiding it from him. "You don't have like a bomb there do you? I'm pretty sure that's illegal to bring on a plane."

She burst out laughing, "they checked my bags at security, genius, and besides, why would I have a bomb?"

"I don't know, you're Laura, there's always an explanation."

"We'll play the nervous game later," She said, probably not realizing what exactly she was saying as she looked around the cabin. "But for now let's play this game." She took it from behind her back and he saw what it was she'd been hiding.

"UNO? You want to play UNO?"

She shrugged, "it's a fun game."

"I'm gonna win."

"In your dreams, Lynch."

"Bring it, Marano."

She just grinned at him as she pulled down his tray table, putting the cards on top of it, while she dealt them. Once she was finished and they both had what they needed, she scooted closer to him so that she could use the tray table easier. He didn't stiffen this time, but instead, smiled to himself. She noticed it and smiled to herself too, just as they started the first game of many to come.

* * *

"UNO!" Laura excitedly said and when Ross put his card down he said the same thing. Laura just grinned and put her last card down, smiling sweetly at him. "I win, again. What was that, five games in a row?"

"Shut up, we're playing another game and another until I finally win."

"You're going to lose." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"By the judgement of the last five games, you're probably right, but I'm not giving up." He looked at her meaningfully, "not ever." She wasn't sure if they were talking about the game anymore, but she just blushed and then watched as he shuffled the cards.

"So, since that took about an hour of our time so far, what should we do for the rest of the time we have on this plane?"

"Start a dance party?" He joked. She rolled her eyes. "I don't know, what do you want to do after I win this next game?"

She stared at him for a moment, a thoughtful look on her face. He looked back at her, unable to help his feelings or thoughts of how beautiful she was with her hair slightly messed up from trying to sleep, her chin against her knee that was up, adorably smiling at him. He took a deep breath and continued to deal out the cards. She reached for her pile and then opened them, looking at him over the cards, she had a thoughtful look in her eye.

"I know what I want to do," She said.

"Oh yeah?"

She nodded, "I want to cuddle with you."

His heart skipped.

He smiled at her, a charming, legit smile.

"Then will do that."

This time she was sure her heart had skipped the butterflies in her tummy had woken up all at once.

She suddenly couldn't wait until the game was over.

* * *

Ross put his last UNO card down and then turned to Laura, a smile on his face. He opened his arms and she smiled back, rolling her eyes, she lay her head on his chest and then wrapped one arm around his stomach, hugging him closer. He put his arms down, one hand going around her shoulders and the other hand on her wrist that was wrapped around him.

"I'm so comfortable," Laura happily sighed, closing her eyes. "Don't make me move, like ever."

"No promises." Ross teased as he let out a yawn and closed his eyes. "You're warm though and really comfortable. I think I'll stay like this."

She giggled against his chest, hiding her face and blushing when she knew he was looking at her.

"You… really just keep getting more and more adorable," He told her honestly, "like, how can someone be as adorable as you are?"

She looked up at him, "you really mean that?"

He nodded, "yeah. I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true. Just like when I call you beautiful or dorky. You're a mix of dorky and adorable, like… what's the word?"

"Adorkable," She smiled up at him.

"Yeah," He smiled down at her, "that's exactly it, you're adorkable."

"I should be offended that you called me a dork, but… I can't. It's cute." She blushed, "you're pretty cute yourself, you know?"

"Not as cute as you are though."

"Equally as cute then."

"Nah, you're still cuter."

"Do you realize we're arguing over who's cuter?" She made a face, "our lives, I swear. We're arguing over such silly random things." She lifted her head so that it was on his shoulder.

"Is that such a bad thing?" He asked, laying his head on top of hers. "At least we're not arguing over dumb things like… I don't know, whatever it is people argue about that's dumb."

She laughed, "yeah, like what plates to put out, or what forks should be used or how to decorate the house a certain way."

"No! I do not want the good China out! It's too expensive, put out the regular plates, our guests aren't royalty!" Ross imitated an old lady and Laura burst out laughing so hard she almost fell out of her seat. Ross couldn't help it and joined her, though he was still trying to make her laugh, but unable to because he was laughing so hard.

"Or, how about this," Laura sat up, flicking her hair out of the way she scoffed, "mooom! My boyfriend's coming over, can't you like, make the plates nicer than that? Ugh! I hate you! You're such a…ugh!" Laura imitated a bratty teenage girl and Ross laughed so hard he had to cover his face with his hand.

"You nailed it!" He gave her a five as Laura fell forward, laughing and hiding her face in his chest, leaning far enough both her hands were on either side of him. After they had calmed down, she lifted her head up to look up at him, still laughing and wiping our way their tears, when they realized just how close they were to each other.

Less than an inch away.

Their laugh session suddenly stopped and they just stared at each other for a few moments, eyes moving in between the other's lips and eyes.

Ross started to lean in and Laura closed her eyes. She knew what was coming.

But to her surprise, it didn't come.

Instead of kissing her on the lips, Ross kissed her on the forehead. It was so sweet and tender, she couldn't help but smile up at him once she had opened her eyes again. Then she hugged him, adjusting herself so that she was on top of him comfortably and then closed her eyes.

She was too warm and too comfortable to care that they hadn't really had a proper kiss yet. She was just happy and comfortable. It was all she wanted to be really.

* * *

They finally got off the plane and were just checking in at the hotel room when Laura felt someone tug on the hem of her shirt. She looked around and then looked down to see a girl around three staring up at her. She smiled, tugging and Ross' sleeve as she bent down to her height. Ross turned and saw Laura bend down, doing the same and looking at the little girl.

Laura sweetly waved at her, "hi, what's your name?" She asked.

"I'm Monica." The girl answered and both Ross and Laura grinned at each other. She looked at Ross, "like your middle name!"

"Yeah! High five!" He said, holding his hand up and her little hand slapped it.

Then she looked down shyly, "can I ask you a question?"

"Yes, of course." Laura said.

"Anything," Ross added.

"Are you ascared of Bellas?" She asked and he looked at her confused.

"You mean am I scared of Bella? As in Bella Thorne?"

She shook her head, "Bellas, who's Bella Thorne?"

"Uh," Laura snapped her fingers, "what's her name on that show," She looked at Ross for help, but they were both so jet-lagged, they couldn't think straight. "Shake it Up," She added and then Ross nodded.

"CeCe." He answered, "uh, Jones."

Monica's eyes lit up, "I lub her! She here too?"

They shook their heads, "no, it's just us," Laura answered, "sorry."

"That's okay." Monica grinned, then she turned to Ross again, her eyes wide with worry, "you ascared of bellas? My brother is. He doesn't like rain."

"Oh!" Ross shook his head, "you're talking about umbrellas."

The girl tilted her head confused, "I said that, bellas."

Laura giggled, hiding her smile behind her hand for a moment.

"Nope," Ross answered, "I'm not afraid anymore." He looked at Laura, "She helped me get…" He tried to think of a word a three year old would understand, "unscared," He finally said.

"Dez too!" She clapped her hands.

He laughed, "yes, and Dez too."

"Can I have a hug?" She asked them both and then looked at Laura, "you sing good, stop being ascared."

"Yes," Ross answered just as Laura nodded.

"I'm working on it," She winked at her and then they both hugged her. After that, she skipped off to her mother who was waiting for her and then turned again, waving goodbye.

"She was adorable," Laura said as they stood up, "and so were you."

"You both were," Stormie said before Ross could respond to her. "Staying in character the way you two did for the little girl, it was really beautiful."

"You got it all on video, didn't you?" Ross asked and Stormie nodded.

"I couldn't help it, it was just so cute."

"Yeah, it was, wasn't it?" Laura nudged Ross.

He moaned, "yes, it was. I'm tired, can we get to the hotel room and nap or sleep until we're… more awake?"

"You know he's tired," Laura leaned in towards Stormie, "when anything he says makes zero sense."

"Unfortunately, that's pretty true," Stormie responded, with a shake of her head and Ross just glared at them both.

* * *

"So…" Ross looked at Laura who was in front of him in the pool, he was moving his arms and legs around to keep him floating while Laura was doing the same. "How do we like Australia so far?"

She tilted her head, "I'd say it's pretty amazing." She leaned her head back to look up at the stars. "So beautiful here."

Ross looked up too, "yeah, it is." He agreed, then lowered his head, looking around. "I'm surprised nobody has mauled us yet," He admitted, "we're all alone in a pool at the hotel. Where is everyone?"

"Probably asleep. It's bedtime for them, while for us it's more like the middle of the day," She responded, sticking her tongue out.

"Why you gotta be such a smartass?" He teased, swimming closer to her. He put his hands on her waist, finding that he was able to stand without a problem. Laura put her arms around his neck and then wrapped her legs around his waist and he just held her as he started to move backwarrds. "You weigh like nothing in the water. No, wait, you always way like nothing."

She laughed, "it's probably because I'm short." She answered, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Maybe, but seriously girl, gain some weight."

She laughed again. "You know what the best part about being in Australia is?" She asked him and he looked at her, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm not here with my family, but I'm here with you, my best friend and that's something I am so grateful for."

He smiled, "yeah, I'm grateful for that too." He looked down at the water, "I've just been so busy lately and I feel like we barely get to see each other or spend time together anymore."

"It's not your fault," She assured him, "you've just got other things going on, we all understand."

"Yeah, but sometimes, it's just so tiring, you know? I just miss those days where I could go to your house in the middle of the night and we'd just sleep together, you're always the first person to know what I need or what I want and… I just hate that I can't do that all the time with you anymore."

She lifted her head to look at him, "I'm only a text or phone call away, anytime you need to talk to me, I'm here for you."

He smiled, "I know."

"Things have changed since we started filming the show, but… would you change any of it for anything?"

"The only thing, I would change," Ross took a moment to think and choose his words carefully, "is how busy I've gotten. Not that I'm not grateful for all the amazing changes and all the amazing things that's happened, I just mean that I don't get to see you unless it's onset now and that honestly just sucks." He admitted and then to her, he looked like a sad puppy in need of a hug.

So she gave him one.

"Don't worry," She assured him, "I'll always be here for you. We're here for a few days, together and we're going to make the most out of it, okay?" He nodded against her shoulder. "We're timeless Ross."

He hugged her tighter, "right, we're timeless."

* * *

It had been a fun, long day filled with a meet and greet, a live chat and meeting fans in the streets while walking around and trying to shop for a bit.

They had just gotten back from the beach and we're getting ready to eat dinner, getting showers, changing and for Stormie and Laura, putting on make-up and doing their hair.

"Hey," Laura looked up in the mirror to see Ross was standing behind her, drying his soaking wet hair with a towel. "This might sound weird, but you should let my mom do your hair. She's really good at it."

Laura made a face, lifting up her long hair, "It's so stringy right now because I just washed it."

"So? She's got no problem doing it."

"How do you know?"

He held his finger up, then counted down from five and Stormie walked in, which then make him smirk in Laura's direction.

"Do you want me to do your hair?"

Laura looked behind her, then pointed her thumb at Ross, "did bozo here put you up to it?" She asked.

"Nah, I'm offering myself." Stormie smiled at her and she nodded.

"Okay, I guess so." She answered, "but don't go like all out, just do whatever's simple. And um, thank you." She smiled shyly at her and Stormie nodded.

"Of course."

Ross just smirked at her in the mirror and she stuck her tongue out at him.

* * *

After about an hour, with both Ross and Laura's hair all looking nice for a night out, they went to eat at a very nice restaurant and then came back to the hotel room. Since it was still light out, Stormie wanted to do some sight seeing, which Laura and Ross had done already when they went out for their interviews, meet and greet and live chat, so she told them to just stay at the hotel and if they left, to let her know.

"So, what do you want to do?" Laura asked, trailing her finger along the bedspread, she looked down at her outfit and wrinkled her nose. "We're not leaving the hotel right?"

"I don't think so," Ross answered, taking off his shirt. She had to catch herself, before she started staring for too long.

"Um, okay great! I'm just gonna go… um, change, yeah." She smiled, giving him the thumbs up and then quickly grabbed her pajamas and hurried into the bathroom. Ross watched her, amused and then continued to get dressed into more comfier clothes.

When Laura stepped out of the bathroom and they both locked eyes, they felt their breaths catch in their throats and stared at each other, wide-eyed.

Ross wasn't wearing a shirt (she was always wondering what it was with those Lynch boys and no shirts) and she was wearing a tank-top and short shorts. Like, very short shorts. Shorts that made Ross imagine a lot of… inappropriate things.

She shyly tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and blushed, looking down at her manicured toes that were painted red.

"So, uh, movie?" Ross asked and she lifted her head up, nodding her head.

"Movie sounds great!"

* * *

About ten minutes into the movie and Laura was already shivering.

To her surprise, Ross, however, was not shivering.

She figured it was because he was from Colorado and it was way colder there than it was in Los Angeles, so he had that over her.

Damn you, Blondie, she thought.

But then she realized that didn't make sense since the air conditioner was on and… yeah she was officially too tired and too jet-lagged to be making any sense anymore.

"Are you cold?" He asked her.

Yes, she wanted to say, but instead said, "no."

He thought for a moment and then stood up. He walked over to his suitcase and pulled out his favorite beanie and his favorite sweatshirt. Then he walked over to her, sat on the bed again and handed both of the items to her.

"But they're your favorite things why are you letting me wear them?" She wondered, looking at him confused. "And if you remember, I have a suitcase too, I can just easily go into mine and get-"

"You're my favorite girl, Laura. I think it makes sense if you wear my favorite things. At least it did in my mind."

She stared at him for a moment and then couldn't help herself and burst into giggles.

"You love this sweatshirt though, it has your favorite band on it." She said, taking it from him and looking at it.

"Yeah, a band that you got me into." He pointed out. "It's okay, really, just wear it. Please? For me?" He pouted at her and she smiled.

"Fine, only because it's you." She answered, "if it was Calum, I probably wouldn't have agreed to it." She joked.

"Yeah, well, Calum's… Calum." Ross responded. Laura knew Calum enough to know that he didn't have to explain more than that. She put the sweatshirt on and they both saw that it covered just a bit passed where her shorts ended.

Ross had to fight the strong urge not to stare.

And his hormones.

But that was a completely different story.

"What's the beanie for?" Laura asked, confused.

He took it from her hand and then put it on her head, making sure it fit perfectly before smiling at her. "To keep your head and ears warm." He answered.

She felt a warm tingling sensation spread through her body.

"Stop being so cute." She whispered and then she lay back on the bed to settle down and continue watching the movie.

"I can't help it sometimes, it's a gift I can't control," Ross answered and she just laughed, playfully pushing him.

"You are unbelievable." Laura said, still staring straight ahead. Though, she had a smile on her face.

"Yeah, I get that a lot."

* * *

After the movie was over, Laura suddenly jumped up. Ross looked at confused and she turned around and pointed to the bathroom. He nodded and then she ran in, closing the door behind her. After a few minutes, she came back and stood in the middle of the room.

"Have a fun pee?" Ross asked her.

"Peeing isn't fun, it's irritating if anything." Laura answered back as she turned to see her suitcase. She reached in and pulled out her toothpaste and toothbrush. Then she went back into the bathroom and was in there for another few minutes, just brushing.

Ross, deciding he couldn't wait any longer to do whatever it is she had to do, got up to follow her into the bathroom. He shut the door closed behind him and she looked up at him, confused.

"Uh, why did you do that?"

"I have to pee."

"And you want me to see you peeing?"

"Yeah? So? It's not like it's something you're seeing for the first time. It's natural. You've seen worse."

"Yeah, wait, what?"

"My morning boners when I was fifteen," He deadpanned and she just nodded silently. She kept her mouth shut and he sighed, "you have to spit don't you?"

She nodded.

He just motioned for her to go ahead and do it, "I grew up with Rocky, trust me, nothing grosses me out. Not that he's gross, but you get my point."

She just nodded and then turned, spitting out her toothpaste, glad that she hadn't almost choked on it.

"So… can I pee now?"

"Yeah just give me-" Ross didn't wait for her to finish the sentence, instead he just turned around, lowered his sweatpants down a bit and then she heard it. The sound of him peeing. "Oh my god, this is so awkward." She looked up, not making any eye contact with him and he just smiled at her.

"Are you uncomfortable?"

"Uh yeah."

"Eh, don't be." He nonchalantly shrugged.

She wanted to know what was wrong with his brain.

"We're best friends Laura and yes, you've seen me pee, but feel special. You're the second person I've peed in front of."

"Second?"

"Yeah, Rocky walked in on me once."

"Dude, you just blew in here like a hurricane and was all, 'I'm gonna pee,' and I was all, 'I'm gonna shoot myself.' and-" Ross finished and then turned to her.

"I see where your eyes are and just so you know, I'm up here." Ross motioned towards the upper part of his body and face.

Yeah, she was definitely feeling something a little different about her best friend. Something like hormonal. Something very un-Laura like.

She wanted to call up her sister and yell at her for being right, but then she decided that was a bit too extreme. So, cheeks red and her eyes anywhere but where he was and with the sudden wave of heat she felt in the room, she quickly moved passed him and opened the door to the bathroom, letting out a breath once she was out of there.

Ross washed his hands and then in a blink of an eye was right in front of her.

"Oh jeez." She rolled her eyes, "don't you have to like… call up Rocky and harass him or something?"

"No, why? He's asleep, or awake or… I don't know, doing whatever it is Rocky does during the day."

"You're with him for most of the day, how do you not know?" She asked, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

"I sense that you are a bit tense." Ross noted as he watched her move around. "What's up with the ants in your pants?"

"Way to word that like a three year old."

"Laura…"

"Ross…"

"Laura."

"Ross."

"Seriously?" He whined, "now we're arguing like three year olds."

"Then stop acting like one!" She tried to walk passed him, but he stopped her. He was looking at her intently and she looked up, only to see his eyes were on her. "What?"

"I don't know." He admitted. "The way you're standing right now with the city behind you and you're wearing my beanie and my sweatshirt and I don't know, you just look… beautiful." He admitted quietly.

Ross was either bipolar or he just had the attention span of a preschooler. She was betting it was the second one, but what he had said, still made her heart melt regardless. Even if he had called her beautiful many times before.

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear that was loose and then gently rubbed her cheek with his thumb, cupping it in his hand until it trailed all the way down to her shoulder.

"What's wrong?" He asked quietly, "why are you acting so jumpy?"

"I…it's just that…we're, you and I…and…I don't know, I just feel…"

"Confused?"

She nodded, "I know we talked about it, um before, but-"

He looked at her confused, "talked about what?"

"Our feelings."

He nodded, his confusion gone and instead he looked a bit… nervous. That was surprising.

"And it might sound really lame," She continued, "but for me..they haven't-"

"It's not lame." Ross interrupted her. "I feel the same way."

She smiled, "so…" Then she looked down at her feet.

He lifted her chin with his finger so that she was looking right at him and stepped closer. "So, nothing. You're wearing my favorite sweatshirt, my favorite beanie, you look hot as hell and we're in Australia." He leaned in so close, she could feel his breath on her lips.

"This is the moment." She whispered.

He didn't answer her, not with words. His lips were about to touch hers, just less than inch away when they heard the sound of the door opening and immediately sprung apart, breathless and staring at each other, Ross running his fingers through his hair.

"What went on in here?" Stormie asked.

Ross just shook his head, "you're worse than Rocky!" He moaned.

Stormie gave Laura a questioning look and she just held her hands up. "I have no idea what he means by that, but um, I'm just going to uh, go to bed. Yeah, um, goodnight!" And with that, she turned and climbed into her bed, turning the light off beside her, she just closed her eyes and after she had rested for a bit, realized that she was so damn close to kissing Ross and that there was no way in hell she was going to stop it from happening.

She wanted it just as much as he did. She was sure of it.

* * *

They didn't say anything about the almost-kiss. The next day they did some more sight-seeing and some more interviews and promo shots so really there was no time to discuss it. Stormie had stuck by them the whole time, telling them about her night out.

Though, they both kept sneaking glances at each other when they thought she wasn't looking.

After a few hours of going nonstop, they decided to take a lunch break.

"Ross, have you been in touch with Maia since you've been here?" Stormie asked him and Laura lifted her head, confused.

"Maia?" She asked.

"His costar in the movie he went to film last year," Stormie explained.

"Why would he have to be in touch with her while we're here?"

"So they can meet up and say hello before we fly back to the states." Stormie answered and that only made Laura more confused.

"We're in Australia," Laura blinked her eyes in her direction.

"She's Australian," Ross explained more, "she's from around here."

That's when it all clicked in Laura's head and made sense, "oh um, okay. Gotcha."

Ross grinned, "jealous?"

"What? No. I wasn't." Laura denied, but Ross kept his smirk. She smacked his arm, "honest!"

"Sureee," Ross answered back and then she smacked him again, her cheeks turning red.

"Alright, lovebirds, let's order some food and eat," Stormie said and they stopped their playful banter.

"Jealousss," Ross whispered to her and she rolled her eyes, choosing to focus on what she was going to eat, rather than Ross' actions.

* * *

"So, Ross…" Laura looked at him, stopping him from stepping farther. She looked up at him. Waves were crashing in the background and there was sand in her toes, but she didn't care. She was lucky to be where she was and being with one of her best friends and experiencing it with him made her so grateful. "When are you going to finally kiss me?"

She thought he was going to stutter, or make a crazy excuse or deny what she said, but instead he just grinned at her. He put his hand in her hair, running his fingers through it for a moment, which caused a smile to appear on her face.

Then he said it, "when the moment is right. I want it to be perfect, it is your first kiss right?" She nodded. He then took his hand off her and put it in his pocket.

All of a sudden he was shy, bashful and blushing.

She really loved that she could make the reaction come out of him. But still, she just wanted to kiss him. So, without really thinking twice about it, she stepped closer to him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him closer. He smiled down at her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, kissing the top of her head.

"Does that count?" He asked.

She pouted, "no."

"Well, trust me, it's coming." He promised her and then he hugged her close again. "I won't leave this place without kissing you, I promise."

* * *

She glared at the beautiful, taller, dark-haired girl with the most amazing Australian accent she'd ever heard sitting in front of her. She tried not to let it show that she was um, sort of jealous that she and Ross were getting along super well and laughing about their time in Puerto Rico.

They were in the middle of reminicing about a time when they were all the in the middle of the ocean, telling a story or some shit, she wasn't paying attention when she had decided she'd had enough. She abruptly stood up, "if you guys will um, excuse me, I have to… go to the bathroom or something, I don't know." She didn't look at them as she ran off, so she didn't see the hurt look on Ross' face. She ran to the bathrooms, stopping outside, she leaned against the wall. Kicking it, she crossed her arms over her chest and just watched everyone walk passed her. She was glad she wasn't recognized, or if she was being recognized, no one had stopped to talk to her. Probably because she was in such a bad mood and they could see it.

"Laura?" She heard and looked up to see Ross was standing in front of her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." She told him, "I just…" She tried to say it, her hand going up, but she smacked her leg and just shook her head.

"You can tell me, you know."

"I…I don't want to." She finally answered, knowing she was being a bit of a brat.

"Laura, it's me. Ross, your best friend, you can tell me anything."

"Tell you anything? It didn't really look like you were telling me anything when you were making me the third wheel back there." She snapped.

"Why because I was catching up with a friend I never see? She lives here Laura, across the world, you live twenty minutes away. Why are you so…"

"If you say I'm jealous, I'm walking away."

"Walking away from what? We're having a conversation. You're normally not rude, you wouldn't walk away in the middle of a conversation. Whether your jealous or not." He answered, "which by the way you totally are."

"Wow, way to act like a seventeen year old, Ross. Just go have fun with her, you clearly want to be around her more than you want to be around me," With that, she pushed herself off the wall and stormed off.

"Come on, Laura, seriously?" Ross shook his head, watching her walk away. Then he just turned and joined Maia back at the table they were sitting at.

"That didn't look like it went well," She said.

"That's because it didn't." He put his head in his hands.

"Can I ask you something?" She asked him and he looked at her, "what on earth are you still doing here?"

"What?" He asked.

She pointed ahead, "go after her, we'll catch up another time."

"But-"

She smiled, "go. If anything you told us back in Puerto Rico is true, then you have to go now or forever lose your chance."

* * *

Laura opened the door to the hotel room, relieved to find that she was alone, especially since she had just slammed the door closed. Tears burned her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.

Taking off her jacket, she just threw it to the side and then picked up a red sweater. She put it on, not paying attention really to what she was doing and then just threw herself on the bed, bringing her knees up to her chest, she just stared at the ground. She wondered why, after the moment she and Ross shared at the beach, he was flirting with another girl. It didn't make sense to her. She had thought she was special. She was probably wrong about that.

Feeling the tears fall down her cheeks, she quickly wiped it away, ignoring the mascara that was on her fingers and continued to just sit there in silence.

Until she heard the door open, turned her head and saw that it was Ross.

"I don't want to talk to you right now," She stood up, shaking her head. He, however, just stared at her for a moment.

"You're wearing my sweater."

She looked down, "oh, well, it was just there and I just didn't want to take it off. It's comfortable."

"You're wearing my sweater," Ross repeated, stepping closer to her, he put his key down by the table by the entrance and walked closer to her.

"Yeah, we established that already." She looked at him confused.

"And you're crying."

"Wow, you're just Captain Obvious today aren't you?" She sarcastically asked, rolling her eyes.

He looked right at her, "you've never looked more beautiful." He said, honestly, his voice barely above a whisper.

"What?" She wasn't expecting him to say that and sniffled, wiping her eyes again.

"You're beautiful." He put his hand on her cheek and was surprised that she didn't smack him away from her. His hand went into her hair and then he pulled her closer, bringing his head down, he just looked in between her eyes and her lips and then he finally went for it.

He kissed her.

Her lips felt soft and when he felt her wrap her arms around him and kiss him back, his heart skipped. His other hand went to her lower back and he just held her against him, kissing her deeper and gentler.

To her, it couldn't have been a more perfect first kiss.

Then, when they broke apart, she was smiling and saw that he was too.

"Believe me now when I say that you're the only girl for me?" He asked her and then her response was to pull him down to her height and kiss him again.

* * *

"I don't want to go home," Laura groaned as she, along with Ross and Stormie packed their suitcases and got ready to check out of the hotel. "I love it too much here."

"We can always come back," Ross pointed out. "I am, with the band in July, so, come with us then."

She didn't want to admit that it just being them two (plus Stormie) had been so special, she didn't want to share the country with anyone else, as lame as that sounded, but she knew it was something that couldn't be stopped so she just nodded.

"Maybe, if I don't have something else going on then, I would love to come."

He smiled at her and leaned in, kissing her on the forehead, she blushed and then turned back to getting her stuff packed.

"So," Ross said after a few moments of packing, he put his arm around her shoulders, "what do you think is next on this crazy adventure that is our lives?"

She looked at him thoughtfully, "I don't know. But I'm sure Raini and Calum will have a few ideas when we get back."

Ross laughed, "That is most definitely a guarantee." He agreed.

* * *

"Since we're… sort of together, I guess…" Ross said, playing with her fingers, "does that mean we can kiss and cuddle?"

Laura looked up at him and gave him a smile, "what do you think?" She asked and then he smiled back and leaned down, kissing her deeply before putting an arm around her and pulling her closer. He continued to play with her fingers and then let out a yawn. "Sleepy?"

He nodded, "we've still got like ten hours left on this plane… and we woke up early to leave. I'm a bit sleepy."

"So…" Laura reached up and kissed his cheek, "sleep then. I'll still be here when you wake up."

He smiled at her and then they both laid down and got comfortable, Laura's head against his chest and his head on top of hers. She closed her eyes and just thought about everything that had happened in just the last few days.

The smile never left her face.

* * *

"Wait!" Stormie called to Ross and Laura as they tiredly got off the plane. She waved at them and they turned around. "Stay there, take a picture." She said and they both looked at each other before shrugging. Ross put his arm around her and her hand reached up to hold his, their fingers intertwining. They both smiled and then Stormie snapped the photo.

Ross looked at Laura and she gave him a nod, so he turned his attention back to his mother again, "you can post that… if you want."

Stormie smiled at them, "I won't right now, but I appreciate you telling me that."

Laura nodded and then she stepped away from Ross. She walked up to Stormie and wrapped her arms around her, "thanks for coming on this amazing trip." She said and then she stepped back. Stormie gave her a warm smile.

"It was my pleasure, and Ross' too I'm sure."

Ross' cheeks turned pink and he started stuttering, putting his arm around Laura who just giggled against his neck.

"It's okay," She whispered and then quickly kissed him.

With that, they walked back out into the bright California sunshine, waiting for Mark to come pick them up and take them home.

"So…" Ross said to her, "ready for the millions of questions from our family and friends and fans once they find out?"

She made a face, "depends on who's asking."

He smiled at her and then leaned down, gently pressing his lips against hers, pulling away slightly, he paused and Laura tilted her head in question. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of doing that." He then moved so he was standing behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, she just smiled as people walked passed them and smiled at their adorableness (at least that's what she was hoping for). "I know I haven't formally asked you to be my girlfriend yet, but I feel like the moment has to be right for that."

"You are such a cheesy romantic," Laura teased.

"I know, I know, so anyway, um, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty jet lagged and tired so when we get home do you want to-" Laura kissed him before he could finish the sentence and pulled away to smile at him.

"I'd love to cuddle."

He nodded and smiled back at her, "alright, cool. Awesome." He put his chin on her shoulder and then it was comfortably silent. "So.." He trailed off, "when are you gonna admit you were jealous?"

Laura's mouth dropped open and she turned around to face him, "I was not jealous!"

"Right and I'm not about to grab your hand and twirl you," Ross answered sarcastically.

"Wait, I can't tell if you were being sincere about that or not," Laura answered and before she could do anything, he stepped back and took her hand, spinning her around. She couldn't help it and laughed as her hair flew behind her. He did it again and then caught her. "You're getting pretty good at that," Laura commented as she came back up.

Ross scoffed, "I've been dancing since I was five, I better be good at that."

"And there's that ego I love so much," She made a face and then wrapped her arms around his neck, nuzzling her nose against his cheek. Just as they were about to hug, Stormie called them over telling them that Mark was there.

As they walked towards his father's car, they couldn't keep the smile off their faces. Then when Mark asked how the trip to Australia was and they both answered that it was amazing and perfect, the smile still stayed.

As his father drove onto the freeway, Ross turned his head towards Laura. "Hey," He whispered.

She looked at him.

"Ready to admit it?"

"Admit what?"

He was going to tease her again, about her jealousy but he saw how tired she was and decided against it. He unbuckled his seatbelt, ignoring her concern and moved closer to her. Then he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer so that her head was on his chest. Looking up, he noticed that they were in traffic and that it would probably be a while until they got back to his house, so he just settled in and closed his eyes.

"What are you doing and why wouldn't you answer my question?" She whispered.

"Shhhh," He whispered back. "We're sleeping."

"We're not sleeping."

"We will be if you keep quiet, close your eyes and relax," He answered back.

"Fine, whatever, just one question."

"What?"

"Why are we whispering?"

He paused, "I don't know." Then he tugged her hair and she gave him a look that just made him smile innocently at her.

And with that, she lay her head back on his chest and hugged him close. She closed her eyes and after a few moments, she felt his even breathing that let him know he was pretty much asleep, she settled in and then finally relaxed. Her exhaustion and jet lag finally took over her body and she too, fell into a deep, comfortable sleep.

Stormie had turned around to speak to Ross, when she noticed the two teenagers in the back were fast asleep. She told Mark about how cute they were and then pulled her phone out, snapping a quick picture, she smiled and then settled back to speak to her husband.

Australia had definitely changed a lot of things, but for the better.

And that was something everyone in the car was grateful for.

* * *

_I did some foreshadowing a little bit (coughhairtuggingcough) so yeah... I hope you liked it! Tell me your thoughts, favorite parts, I love hearing about what parts you guys like! _

_Don't be shy. Tell meee haha. _

_So next chapter might be a bit of them still being seventeen, but I may do another bday celebration kinda thing since Ross wasn't in town for Laura's birthday in real life, he was in Japan right? And then of course he was with family on his, so maybe a little surprise? But a special surprise? Oh! And Ross has to ask her to be his girlfriend so... yeah, there's gonna be that too. _

_Get excited, very ;) _


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